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CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
FORT DEARBORN SERIES 



THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 



Agents 

THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
LONDON AND EDINBURGH 

THE MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA 
TOKYO, OSAKA, KYOTO 

KARL W. HIERSEMANN 
LEIPZIG 

THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY 
NEW YORK 



CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

FORT DEARBORN SERIES 

jEasters of tf)e Wilatxnm 

By 

CHARLES BERT REED, M.D. 

Author of "First Great Canadian" 




THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 






cl 



Copyright 1914 By 
Chicago Historical Society 



All Rights Reserved 



Published March 1914 



MAR-2T19I4 



Composed and Printed By 

The University of Chicago Press 

Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. 






K 



©CI.A369399 



TO 

MY FATHER AND MOTHER 

In Affection and Gratitude 



preface 

The most insistent fact in history is the 
struggle between man and Nature, or between 
man and man with Nature for the prize. 

Everywhere the puny human forces have 
dashed themselves with gallant idealism or 
reckless enthusiasm against the obduracy of 
primeval things. 

In America the effort has not been in vain 
nor devoid of dramatic interest. A myriad of 
industrial adventures have found success, and 
the papers herewith offered may possibly renew 
a flagging interest in the first phases of the 
comprehensive movement which now takes so 
conspicuous a part in our national life. 

History and story, it is said, are Both narra- 
tives, but while history is regarded merely as a 
record, story stimulates the imagination. 

In truth history should stimulate more 
powerfully than fiction, for it concerns the 
ideals which have moved mankind. The 
greed of commerce, the greed of thought, the 
greed of faith, and the greed of love are alike 
masters of our destiny. 

If kindling the mind is the mark of literary 
excellence, then it belongs to the historian, as 
to the novelist, to present his subject so that 
events will appear, not only in due order, but 
with appropriate values and the necessary 
climax. 



Wfre preface 



This is particularly true in the narrative of 
inherently adventurous persons or peculiarly 
dramatic events. These lives or actions must 
be reinvested, if possible, not only with the 
atmosphere of their time, but with those 
unconscious accessory features which are 
visible only to a sympathetic posterity. 
Neither the romantic nor the indifferent, the 
lavish nor the sordid can be overlooked with- 
out bald misrepresentation. Every chroni- 
cler, however veracious in intent, must pass his 
material through his own personality, be it 
colored or neutral. It is this which develops 
the human interest and keeps history in its 
rightful place as a branch of literature. 

In reproducing these romantic episodes of 
our exploration era the writer believes that he 
has neither exaggerated the color nor dis- 
torted the facts of that intensely human period. 
He realizes that he is open to reproach for not 
keeping more closely to modern methods of 
historical presentation, but in adopting the 
light rather than the solemn style, he is con- 
vinced that this particular subject receives a 
not inappropriate dress, and that a page which 
can be read without fatigue need not neces- 
sarily be untruthful. 

This new edition of the "Masters of the 
Wilderness" is made possible through the 
generosity of the Chicago Historical Society, 
and its extreme devotion to developments in 
the Mississippi valley. The opportunity is, 
viii 



®fje preface 



therefore, grasped by the writer to express his 
appreciation to the Society and to add the 
subsidiary papers which are so vitally allied to 
the titular essay. 

In compiling and arranging his material the 
author has used unsparingly every available 
source of information, both primary and 
secondary. Most of these works are men- 
tioned in the appended bibliography, and to 
them the writer gladly acknowledges his in- 
debtedness. Thanks are also due to Miss 
Lillian Quealy who assisted with the manu- 
script, and to Miss Caroline M. Mcllvaine for 
many courtesies. 

C. B. R. 

December, 1913 



IX 



aDafcle of Contents 



PAGE 



The Masters of the Wilderness . . . i 
A Study of the Hudson's Bay Company 
from Its Origin to Modern Times 



The Beaver Club 55 

Some Social Aspects of the Fur Trade 



A Dream of Empire 95 

The Adventures of Tonty in Old Louisiana 



W$t JWaster* of tfje OTtlberneS* 

A STUDY OF 

THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY 

FROM ITS ORIGIN TO 

MODERN TIMES 



"I am the land that listens, I am the land that broods; 
Steeped in eternal beauty, crystalline waters and 

woods. 
Long have I waited lonely, shunned as a thing accurst, 
Monstrous, moody, pathetic, the last of the lands and 

the first; 
Visioning camp-fires at twilight, sad with a longing 

forlorn, 
Feeling my womb o'er-pregnant with the seed of cities 

unborn. 
Wild and wide are my borders, stern as death is my 

sway, 
And I wait for the men who will win me — and I will 

not be won in a day." 

— Service, "The Law of the Yukon." 



Wfje Jfflatfter* of ttje SiEtlberneag* 

The question of a Northwest Passage to 
India and the South Seas has stimulated the 
mind and kindled the imagination of mankind 
for four hundred years. From the very first a 
fascinating theory, it soon became a necessary 
obsession, for the fierce activities of the trium- 
phant Turks rendered the usual routes to the 
Indies too perilous for commerce, and Chris- 
tian nations, especially Holland and England, 
turned with intense eagerness to the solution 
of this problem. Defeated in the immediate 
object, their efforts nevertheless exercised an 
incalculable influence over the entire world. 
With the single exception of the cognate adven- 
ture, the search for the North Pole, it is prob- 
able that no other quest has added so 
immensely to those arts and industries which 
make for the promotion of science and the 
advancement of civilization. That such a 
passage actually existed has been recognized 
since the voyage of Sir Edward Parry in 1820 
and the fact was confirmed by the expedition 
of McClure in 1857, yet the complete passage 
from sea to sea had never succeeded until the 
recent memorable voyage of Captain Amund- 
sen in 1903-6. Among the earlier navigators 
who received the crown of immortality through 
their efforts to achieve this quest, none is more 
meritoriously conspicuous than Henry Hudson, 

*A paper read before the Society, March 16, igoo. 



®be jWaster* of tfje W&ilbtvviz&& 

who in 1607 hammered his way through the ice 
floes to 8o° north latitude. Next he thought 
to break through on the south, and in 1609 he 
discovered and explored the Chesapeake and 
Delaware Bays, the harbor of New York, 
where he was attacked by natives, and sailed 
up the Hudson River as far as the present site 
of Albany. But the lure of the Northern route 
was strong upon him, and in 1 610 he undertook 
the voyage which was at the same time the 
source of his greatest renown and the cause of 
his dreary death. 

Passing through Hudson Straits, he entered 
the Bay which also bears his name and guided 
his ship cautiously southward. Sustained by 
an indomitable spirit, he rose superior to many 
difficulties and dangers, and spent over a year 
exploring the harbors, inlets, and adjacent 
coasts of this great inland sea. On attempting 
the homeward passage, however, he found he 
had delayed too long, and his crew, already 
disaffected by reason of the long voyage and 
the many strange hardships, suddenly became 
enraged at Hudson on account of his irascible 
temper, and rose in mutiny on June 11, 1611. 
They put Hudson, his little son, and five others 
into a shallop with a small amount of ammuni- 
tion and provisions and sailed away. 

In the narrative of this expedition written by 
Abaccus Prickett, one of the mutineers who 
succeeded in reaching England after a weari- 
some and perilous voyage, it is told how the old 



■■ 



®fje jWasters of tfje W&iMvMX* 



man, with set features and flying gray locks, 
grimly made sail in pursuit of his ship until 
he was dropped below the horizon and never 
seen again. 

We now know only too well the barriers 
which lie in the path of the Northwest Passage. 
Almost directly northeast of the mouth of 
the Fish River which Lieutenants Back and 
Simpson both found, there lies a vast mass of 
ice which can neither move toward Behring 
Strait on account of the shallow water, nor to 
Baffin Bay on account of the narrowness and 
crookedness of the channels. We know also, 
from the reports of the Low expedition of 
1903-4, that there are two open currents 
always flowing in the straits that lead to 
Hudson Bay; one along the northern shore 
inward and to the west, and one along the 
southern shore outward and eastward, bearing 
the raft ice of the Bay. These currents are so 
suitably disposed that by a slight change of 
course ships can navigate the straits and have 
the benefit of the current in either direction and 
sail with the ice floes rather than against them. 
We also know that Hudson Bay is simply a vast 
whirlpool 800 miles wide by 1,000 miles long 
which has been cut, grooved, and gouged out of 
the solid rock by those two powerful currents 
which bear in their puissant grasp the raft ice 
of the Arctic Sea, the ice of prehistoric ages. 

Like a giant sand-blast these huge masses 
of ice have been whirled grinding and eroding 



®be JMaster* of tfce OTtfoernes* 

around the Bay only to be disgorged through 
Hudson Straits upon the bosom of the broad 
Atlantic. Into this channel of rock, the Hud- 
son Straits, 450 miles long, is jammed from 
the west, churned together and concentrated 
the area of an ice continent, and up this 
channel from the east runs a " tide-rip " thirty- 
five feet high. When the "tide-rip" and the 
ice meet there occurs what the old navigators 
of the Hudson's Bay Company called "the 
furious overfall." 

With difficulty one resists the temptation to 
pursue this interesting subject farther, but this 
is not the story that we started to relate, it is 
merely the scene of its beginning. 

Impressed by the reports which various 
navigators brought back from this region, a 
company was formed for the purpose of exploit- 
ing the shores of the Bay and the wooded 
fastnesses of the interior. The company was 
organized originally at the instance of the 
French explorers, Radisson and his brother-in- 
law, Groseilliers, whose visit to the Hudson 
Bay country had revealed its boundless possi- 
bilities. Disappointed in enlisting an interest 
in the venture in Montreal, they applied to Sir 
George Carteret, who was then in America as a 
member of the Royal Commission appointed to 
settle a number of disputed questions between 
New York and New England. 

It was through his influence that they met 
the King in 1666, but it was only after a long 



Wfje Rasters of tfje W&iMxntX* 

delay, and some say not without insistence on 
the part of Louise Querouaille, the King's 
mistress, who was also under deep obligations 
to Lord Arlington, that the charter was 
granted by Charles II in May, 1670. Quite 
early in the venture the promoters had 
obtained audience with Prince Rupert, who 
with historical fieriness entered enthusiastically 
into the undertaking and became the first 
Governor of the " Honorable Hudson's Bay 
Company." There is an uncontradicted story 
to the effect that the Prince received a lump 
sum of £10,000 for his interest and influence in 
securing the charter, but we much prefer to 
believe that his interest was engaged and his 
romantic mind inflamed by the adventurous 
nature of the project, rather than by.monetary 
considerations. When the Prince died he was 
succeeded in the governorship by the Duke of 
York, the King's brother, who afterward 
resigned to become James II of England. The 
Duke indeed had been associated with the 
adventure from the beginning and the records 
show that his was the first name on the stock 
book, while opposite the name on the credit 
side of the account it states: "By a share 
presented to him in the stock and adventure 
by the Governor and Company, £300." We 
learn that among the many subscribers to the 
stock were to be found the King's cousin, his 
brother, afterward King James, the Duke of 
Albemarle, General Monk, who was largely 



W$t iWaster* of tfje OTtlbernea* 

responsible for the restoration of Charles, 
Henry, Earl of Arlington, a member of the 
ruling cabal, and Anthony, Earl of Shaftsbury, 
the versatile minister of the King, all of whom 
became directors in the new undertaking. 

In their application for a charter the Com- 
pany had urged the desirability of such a cor- 
poration as they contemplated as a means of 
(i) continuing the search for the Northwest 
Passage, (2) that in the progress of trade with 
the nations the blessings of civilization and 
religion should be brought to the Indians, and 
finally (3) that settlements could be affected to 
the glory of the King. We shall learn in the 
course of the narrative how quickly the Com- 
pany lost sight of these high aims in the pursuit 
of a less noble purpose. The right of the King 
to grant such an instrument may be seriously 
questioned, but there was apparently no doubt 
in his own mind, and without evident qualms 
of conscience the " Merry Monarch" disposed 
of an expanse equal to the United States, 
except Alaska, "To our dear and entirely 
beloved cousin Prince Rupert, Count Palatine 
of the Rhine, Duke of Bavaria, etc. (with the 
others), constituting the Governor and Com- 
pany of Adventurers trading into Hudson's 
Bay." The charter states that the incorpora- 
tors deserve the privileges because they "have 
at their own great cost and charges undertaken 
an expedition for Hudson's Bay in the north- 
west parts of America, for a discovery of a new 



W&t Jfflaster* of tlje OTtttrerne** 

passage into the South Sea and for the finding 
of some trade for furs, minerals and other con- 
siderable commodities and by such their 
undertakings, have already made such dis- 
coveries as to encourage them to proceed 
farther in pursuance of their said design, by 
means whereof there may probably arise great 
advantage to us and our kingdom." 

With truly royal, if unconscious, generosity 
Charles gives "The whole trade of all those 
seas, streights and bays, rivers, lakes, creeks 
and sounds, in whatsoever latitude they shall 
lie within the entrance of the streights com- 
monly called Hudson's Streights, together with 
all the lands, countries and territories upon the 
coasts and confines of the seas, streights, bays, 
lakes and rivers, creeks and sounds aforesaid 
which are not now actually possessed by any of 
our subjects, or by the subjects of any other 
Christian Prince or State." 

Now the country watered by rivers flowing 
into Hudson Bay extended two hundred miles 
to the east, three hundred miles to the south, 
and sixteen hundred miles to the west, al- 
though by the terms of the charter it might 
extend to China as men at that time un- 
doubtedly believed. From near the western 
end of Lake Superior, streams find their way by 
Rainy Lake and Lake of the Woods to Lake 
Winnipeg and thence by Nelson River to 
Hudson Bay. From southwestern Minnesota 
the "Red River of the North" flows into Lake 



®be Jfflatfters of tfte WLilbtvnt&x 

Winnipeg and thence into Hudson Bay. 
Hither also flows the mighty Saskatchewan, 
which, wide as the Mississippi, draws out its 
lingering and serpentine course for sixteen 
hundred miles from its origin in the very heart 
of the Rocky Mountains to that huge collect- 
ing basin, Lake Winnipeg, where its turbulent 
flood first finds temporary peace. This vast 
extent of territory was quite commensurate 
with the powers and privileges conferred, for 
the charter also reads that the " fisheries within 
Hudson's Streights, the minerals including 
gold, silver, gems and precious stones, shall be 
possessed by the Company." The whole land 
was to be held in "free and common socage," 
that is, as absolute proprietors. The Com- 
pany was empowered to make laws not only for 
its own servants, but having force over all per- 
sons upon the lands. And further, "To judge 
all persons belonging to said Governor or Com- 
pany, or that shall live under them, in all cases 
civil or criminal according to £he laws of this 
kingdom and to execute justice accordingly." 

"The Company is empowered to send ships 
of war, men or ammunition into their planta- 
tions and appoint commanders and officers and 
even to issue to them their commissions." 

To make peace or war with any non- 
Christian people. 

To build forts and fortifications and, what 
was more to the point, they were to have "the 
whole and only liberty of Trade and Traffick," 



®fje fflaxttv* of tfje OTtlberne** 

and free power was given to seize upon the per- 
sons of all who might attempt to violate this 
provision. 

This, then, was the origin of that famous 
Company which for two hundred years held 
lordly sway over the "wintry lakes and bound- 
less forests of the Canadas, exercising a power 
more absolute, if possible, than that of the 
potentates of the East India Company over the 
voluptuous climes and magnificent realms of 
the Orient." 

It will be interesting now to consider briefly 
how rightfully Charles indulged his kingly 
bounty. The bestowal of such great privileges 
as those given to the Hudson's Bay Company 
may be accounted for in the prevailing idea as 
to the royal prerogative, but even h\ those days 
the grant was attacked and called invalid since 
it had not received the sanction of Parliament. 
A most troublesome feature of the charter was 
the exclusion of the "portion possessed by sub- 
jects of any other Christian Prince or State." 

At that time Canada was undeniably French 
and there was no distinct boundary drawn 
between the territory of France on the south 
and that granted to the English Company on 
the Bay, but in the contemporaneous maps 
acknowledged as correct by both nations, the 
Saskatchewan and Red Rivers were alike recog- 
nized as belonging to France, though both 
drained into Hudson Bay. By the eighth 
article of the treaty of Ryswick in 1697, the 



W&t piaster* of tfje WLiXbtxut&z 

whole of Hudson Bay, excepting only Fort 
Albany, was recognized as belonging to the 
Crown of France. The Company already 
somewhat uncertain as to its rights did not feel 
easier under the terms of the treaty and con- 
siderable anxiety was produced by the con- 
tinual attacks of the French upon the Com- 
pany's forts, which had been so far successful 
as almost to dispossess the English. In the 
same year that this treaty had been signed and 
by the terms of which each side was to keep 
what each then occupied, the indefatigable 
Iberville had conducted an expedition into the 
Bay, and secured possession of all the forts in- 
cluding even the long defiant Nelson (or York) 
after a brilliant naval engagement. But in 
spite of the attacks by Iberville and others, in 
spite of the capture and demolition of its forts, 
the Company held grimly to its privileges which 
every year of possession bound closer. 

For the first time in 17 13 by the treaty of 
Utrecht was a portion of the shores of the Bay 
ceded to England. Thus forty-three years 
after the granting of the charter and twenty- 
eight years after the death of the grantor, could 
the English claim undisputed possession of a 
part of Hudson Bay, and then only was such a 
grant legally possible which Charles had made 
to the Hudson's Bay Company in 1670. 

Throughout it all, however, the disastrous 
results of actual and of threatened treaty 
action never betrayed the dignity of the direct- 



Wi)t JWasters of tfje OTtilrerne&a; 

orate into clamor nor unseemly lamentation. 
Delegation after delegation, to be sure, be- 
sought and frequently received the benefit of 
royal influence and protection in the early his- 
tory of the adventure, while in later times the 
best counselors of the United Kingdom fought 
its legal battles in court, parliament, and forum, 
but from first to last the inner workings of 
the Company were consistently and carefully 
veiled in obscurity. 

The meeting of the directors in the old Hud- 
son Bay House on Fenchurch Street, London, 
were invariably conducted with the utmost 
secrecy and ceremony. The officers arrived 
and departed like conspirators and held their 
sessions in the semi-gloom which the few 
scattered candles could only accentuate. The 
solemnity and secrecy of these occasions was 
such that, as might be expected, Dame Rumor 
was soon busily spreading exaggerated and 
fanciful reports of the unknown events which 
took place behind the closed doors. These 
reports delivered in mysterious whispers and 
accompanied by significant shrugs of the 
shoulders generally referred to the enormous 
financial success of the adventure. Doubtless 
much of the secrecy was due to the weight of 
the responsibility which each of the directors 
felt in the gigantic undertaking, but also it was 
wise business policy. 

Let us now look forward for a moment to a 
consideration of the results of the enterprise 

13 



W$z Jfflaster* of tfje WLiMvnt&t 

and learn if possible why the Company should 
maintain a dense cloud over its American 
dominions, and why any attempt to disperse 
the cloud and allow light to fall upon the mys- 
tery beneath should be met with serious 
obstacles and not infrequently with death. 
Let us take advantage of our privilege as narra- 
tors and peer for an instant through the 
obscurity which has hidden, as much as may 
be, the financial operations of this Company 
which have been conducted so quietly and 
shrewdly for two hundred and forty years. 

The Company was originally capitalized for 
£10,500, and on this amount it admittedly 
earned 125 per cent in the next twenty years; 
in 1690 the stock was trebled, and thirty years 
later the directors were startled out of their 
habitual calm and caution by the general 
excitement attending the South Sea Bubble 
and the stock was again trebled; that this was 
not, however, an example of high finance is 
shown by the fact that they paid a 25 per cent 
dividend on the trebled stock in the same year. 
From 1690 to 1800, a period of no years, the 
stock earned, according to the admission of 
Governor Pelly before a Legislative committee, 
from 60 per cent to 70 per cent a year, the stock 
being again trebled during this period and 
an increase of £9,450 added to the trebled 
amount. When we consider that these figures 
have been yielded up under extreme pressure 
by parties interested in their concealment, it is 

14 



arije Jflasiter* of tfte W&iMvnts& 

not probable that they are in any degree over- 
stated, but rather the contrary. 

According to Beckles Wilson, the value of 
the merchandise sent to the Bay in 1676 was 
£650 sterling, while the furs brought back sold 
for £19,000, a profit of nearly 3,000 per cent. 
In 1748 the value of goods sent out amounted 
to £5,000 sterling, and the furs received in 
exchange sold in England for £30,000 or 600 
per cent profit; the profit in dull times accord- 
ing to the same authority being 40 per cent on 
a paid-up capital. From 1800 to 1821, owing 
to the competition of other companies, espe- 
cially of its energetic and aggressive rival, the 
Northwest Company, the stock paid a trivial 
4 per cent for sixteen years and nothing at all 
for five years. This was the period, however, 
in which the Company, constantly harried 
by its unrelenting opponent, expanded most 
broadly. It broke away from its traditional 
policy of keeping forts in the vicinity of the 
Great Bay only, and threw out a network of 
posts, that covered every important point on 
the principal trails and water courses of the 
Northwest. 

In 1 82 1 the Northwest Company was 
merged into the Hudson's Bay Company, and 
upon the new and enlarged capital of £400,000 
they received an annual profit of £250,000. 

With this knowledge we cannot wonder that 
the directors came and went with the stealthi- 
ness of thieves, nor that they resented the 

15 



®f)e JWaater* of tfje 3KBtlbentea* 

attempts that were continually made to pene- 
trate the gloom and obscurity in which they 
had carefully enveloped their activities in the 
adventurous, lawless, and fascinating fur trade. 

The executive staff of the Company, elected 
by the stockholders, consisted of the governor 
and seven directors, who ruled with an imperi- 
ous hand over their more than kingly domain. 
They controlled the annual fur sales and 
apportioned the dividends, they established 
forts and appointed and removed governors, 
they made war and peace not only with "non- 
Christian people," as provided in the charter, 
but with their at least equally Christian 
competitors. They purchased ships and sent 
them laden with supplies annually to the shores 
of the Bay whence the cargoes were distributed 
to the interior. 

Neither friend nor enemy succeeded in dis- 
turbing or altering their authority. Under 
their jealous eyes every detail of the adventure 
was industriously worked out. 

The chief factors were directly responsible to 
the board, and were frequently ordered before 
it to explain or justify their actions and to 
receive the discipline which the board was not 
backward in applying. A most servile obedi- 
ence was exacted at all times. The factors in 
turn were not unready to hand down the law 
with undiminished force to the Company's 
servants, both within and without the fort. 
Dependent as they were for supplies upon the 
16 



W$t jfWatfter* of tfje SfflKlbentes* 

annual ship and exposed in the interval to 
manifold dangers, the little isolated garrisons 
were expected to possess a high degree of indi- 
vidual responsibility, together with a loyal 
subordination to the lawful head of the post. 
In each fort the ranks were kept with almost 
military precision from governor or chief factor 
through chief trader, clerk, apprentice clerk, 
postmaster and interpreters to laborers and 
Indians. The apprentice clerks were engaged 
for a period of five years, which promised in 
from fifteen to twenty years to bring the 
apprentice to a clerkship with the munificent 
income of $200 per year. The first five years 
were invariably spent at a remote and desolate 
post where, cut off from home or kindred, he 
learned to look to the Company as a dog to his 
master. He thus became bound to the Com- 
pany for life, since other avenues of business 
were effectually closed to him, and progress 
was possible only along the line of Company 
promotion, which involved a lifetime. He 
embarked upon a career in which his position 
was as definitely ordained, his course as per- 
fectly controlled and his escape as improbable 
as if he belonged to a sodality of feudal knights 
or had membership in a religious brotherhood. 
The personnel of the forts was recruited almost 
entirely from the Highlands of Scotland and 
the Orkney Isles, and therein the Company 
showed great business acumen, since by 
nature, education, and early environment they 

17 



W$t Jffla*ter$ of tfje W&ilbtxntxx 

possessed the taciturnity, the thrift, the love 
for solitude and wildness, the simplicity and 
sturdiness of character which eminently fitted 
them for the arduous and lonesome life which 
they were called upon to endure. They dwelt 
in the grim and grinding wilderness inhabited 
by savage beasts and still more savage men, 
and against such adversaries they were 
expected to hazard their lives in ceaseless war- 
fare to wring out profits for the Company. As 
they were liable to be sent at a moment's 
notice from the Atlantic to the Pacific, they 
were expected to be self-reliant and resolute in 
the presence of danger to themselves or to the 
property in their charge and keep friendly 
with a notoriously uncertain and childish 
people. The spirit of monopoly, the golden 
character of silence, the need of being secretive 
and uncommunicative, was instilled into every 
clerk, trapper, and trader. At length after 
thirty-five or forty years of faithful service, the 
clerk became a factor, and as factor he secured 
command of a post, be it on the Arctic shore, 
on the plains of Assiniboia, or beside a rushing 
stream that forms a highway to the St. 
Lawrence, to the Pacific or to Hudson Bay ; the 
command was his and he ruled like a proconsul 
over an immense territory interlaced with trails 
and waterways and inhabited by barbarous 
tribes. Surrounded by his Indian vassalage, 
and in the company of one or two white men, 
the factor lived his life until such time as his 
18 



tmfje jUlaSter* of tfje »ilberne*a 

length of service permitted him to retire on a 
pension and return to his native land. 

On a little knoll, a hundred yards or so from 
the water, stands the factor's house, and 
arranged in the form of a square are the other 
buildings of the post, consisting of the general 
store, the warehouse, the blacksmith shop, the 
canoe house, and the carpenter shop, all of 
which in the olden time were surrounded by 
high, pointed and not-easily-to-be-scaled pali- 
sades, dominated by a great flagstaff in the 
midst of the square, from the top of which for 
honored guest or festal day the banner of the 
Company waved its lazy folds over a strange 
and heterogeneous population. The close 
relationship of the Crown and Company was 
shown on the crimson field where *the Union 
Jack and the initials of the great company 
occupy adjoining but diagonal quadrants. 

The life at the forts became a routine like a 
frontier army post. In winter snowshoeing, 
trapping, and hunting could be made incidental 
to supplying the factory with fresh meat, 
while the evenings were spent in chess, back- 
gammon, and whist when players enough 
could be obtained. In summer canoe sailing 
and dog racing were cherished sports, but the 
great event of the year was the arrival or 
departure of the brigade. This was the fleet of 
three or four "North-canoes," each manned by 
eight men and all under the guidance of a con- 
ductor. The brigades took out the fur from 

19 



®be jffflatfter* of tfje WLilbtxntstt 

the fort and brought back supplies from the 
coast, a journey that sometimes required two 
years for its completion. The " North-canoes " 
had skilful men in bow and stern at double the 
wages of the rest, who were responsible for the 
canoe and its contents to the conductor of the 
brigade, or to the head of the expedition, when 
two or more brigades traveled in company. 
The freight of these canoes would consist of 
sixty pieces or packages of merchandise weigh- 
ing from 90 to 100 pounds each, together with 
provisions to the amount of 1,000 pounds. 
Added to this was the weight of eight men and 
the 40 pounds of " duffle" or personal baggage 
which each was allowed to carry, and the whole 
weight would, therefore, exceed 8,000 pounds, 
or possibly four tons as an average. When the 
brigade arrived or departed all was excitement, 
since it brought the isolated post into touch 
with the great world without and would bring 
back from the coast a fund of new experiences 
for winter's consumption. Sometimes on the 
return of the brigade there would be found a 
file of newspapers a year old, and these would 
be opened day by day on the corresponding 
date and the world's news of the previous year 
eagerly followed. Thus each lonely post con- 
stituted an oasis of civilization in the midst of 
the wilderness, a peripheral ganglion in more 
or less close communication with the central 
nervous system. 

That the mind was not always satisfied nor 

20 



W&t iWaster* of tfje ©Sltttrerne** 

the emotions benumbed by this primitive exist- 
ence to the degree desired by the Company, 
and that the factor many times repented his 
contract, may be learned from the story of 
McLean, who was forty years in the service; 
he says: 

"The history of my career may serve as a 
warning to those who may be disposed to enter 
the Hudson Bay Company's service. They 
may learn that from the moment they embark 
in the Company's canoes at Lachine or in their 
ships at Gravesend, they bid adieu to all that 
civilized man most values on earth. They bid 
adieu to their families and friends, probably 
forever, for if they remain long enough to 
attain the promotion that allows them the 
privilege of revisiting their native land (twenty 
or twenty-five years), what changes does not 
this life exhibit in a much shorter time ? They 
bid adieu to all the comforts and conveniences 
of civilization to vegetate at some solitary post, 
hundreds of miles perhaps from any other 
human habitation, save the wigwam of the 
savage, without any society other than that of 
their own thoughts or of the two or three 
humble persons who share their exile. They 
bid adieu to all refinement and cultivation, not 
infrequently becoming semi-barbarians, so 
altered in habits and sentiments, that they not 
only become attached to savage life, but lose 
all relish for any other." Thus the white 
man. 



OTje J$la£ters of tije Wititierne^ 

The reaction of the Indian to his environ- 
ment is no less interesting than its effect upon 
the Anglo-Saxon. In each race special quali- 
ties were developed according to the needs of 
the Company. 

The tradition of the Company was to keep 
the Indian a hunter. There was never any 
effort wasted in encouraging the native to 
agriculture or any industry. Tribal strife also 
was frowned upon, since it prevented hunting 
and trapping and therefore interfered with the 
interests of the Company, and no Indian up- 
rising has ever marred the long suzerainty. 
" To make a good collection of fur was the chief 
aim; for this the Indian required no education, 
for this the wandering habit needed to be culti- 
vated rather than discouraged, and for this it 
was well to have the home ties as brittle as 
possible, hence the teepee and the tent were 
favored for the Indian hunter rather than the 
permanent camp or the log house." Originally 
of a more pacific and docile nature than the 
fierce tribes farther south, they soon lost their 
initiative and became employees and depend- 
ents of the Company. 

To stand well with the Company became not 
only a desirable thing among the natives, on 
account of the rewards it produced, but it 
became essential to the preservation of life, for 
the old arts were forgotten in the use of the new 
facilities furnished by the post. The system 
worked admirably. The hunter was given 



Cije JWaster* at tfte OTtlberne** 

credit by the factor for about $150 . 00 worth of 
goods, and woe betide him if he did not return 
at the end of the season with fur enough to can- 
cel the indebtedness. In case of accident or a 
run of hard luck, provided he bore a good repu- 
tation, he would be staked again, but otherwise 
he could secure no more supplies until his 
obligation had been taken up or vouched for by 
some compassionate relative; neither would it 
avail to go to another post, for he would find 
his reputation there ahead of him. 

Occasionally an Indian vassal feels that he 
has been unjustly treated, and filled with his 
sense of injury, he will march off indignantly 
at the head of his family and attach himself to 
an adjacent post, hoping thereby to injure his 
former factor. In the great Northland all 
roads that carry furs lead to Hudson Bay, so 
that from the Company's standpoint the 
Indian is welcome to live near any post, pro- 
vided only that he brings in fur. When the 
furs are in the hands of the Indian, the Com- 
pany will do the rest. The great seal of the 
Company bears the motto pro pelle cutem, or 
"skin for skin," a phrase which has been 
variously interpreted by those most interested. 

The price charged the Indians for goods has 
always been as large as the amount paid for 
furs has been small, but this is the rule always 
where, with ostentatious righteousness, the 
white man takes up his burden at the expense 
of the unwilling native, or in the guise of trade 

23 



W&t JWatfter* of fte VHtOiemeM 

with the ignorant or dependent tribes whom he 
benevolently chooses to civilize. 

Having secured his goods, mended the 
canoes, and bidden farewell to his friends, the 
Indian starts with his family in the late fall for 
the hunting-grounds. "Day after day they 
labor with paddle or tracking line, pole or 
tumpstrap, or occasionally spreading their 
blankets as sails to a favorable breeze. They 
live on the country through which they travel, 
snow flurries come and go, ice forms and thaws, 
dry leaves rustle upon the floor of the forest. 
The weather is cold and exhilarating, days of 
glorious sunshine and nights of hard frost." 
Their way takes them over portages that lead 
across steep and rocky hills, through wild 
gorges and over rank muskegs. . Along beauti- 
ful little streams and tranquil lakes they drive 
their canoes swiftly to the rhythm of paddle 
handles bumping on the gunwales and to the 
music of blades that swish through swirling 
waters, leaving little gurgling wakes. They 
glide on beneath overhanging trees, past a 
moose-trodden beach or a bear-trampled bank. 
Down wild rapids, across foaming eddies, 
through endless forests of conifer and birch 
they sweep with the current as through a 
canyon deeply carved of malachite and marble. 
Through this enchanting panorama they speed 
to the end of their voyage; doubtless to a point 
where a little river breaks the shore of a lonely 
lake, where furtive shapes steal silently to 
24 



W$t Jtlasters of tfje W&iMvntx* 

drink and phantom hunters roam in birch and 
cedar solitudes. Here with long spruce sap- 
lings they frame the winter home, covering 
the naked poles with birch bark or animal 
skins, and warming the tepee, as it is now 
called, by means of a little conical fire within. 
The grim Northland winter is spent in hunt- 
ing, trapping, and curing the skins, until the 
groans of the ice-covered streams and the lisp 
of the snow-mantled firs inform the hunter that 
spring is at hand and the way to the post open. 
In response to these airy summons the canoes 
are loaded down with the pelts of beaver and 
bear, lynx and marten, and other denizens of 
the wilderness; the covering is removed from 
the tepee, the spruce poles are left standing 
like a naked skeleton, and are quickly lost to 
view as the Indian swings into the icy stream 
and starts back to the post. When the season 
has been good and the hunter fortunate, he will 
bring in from $300 to $600 worth of furs, and 
he feels more than ever the magic of spring as 
he paddles lightheartedly down the river to 
his summer camp. 

The method of trade with the Indians was 
developed as early as 1690 and quickly became 
a science. The tribes brought down their skins 
to the post and delivered them through a small 
aperture in the side of the storehouse. They 
entered the stockade three or four at a time 
and traded one by one at the window over 
which the chief trader presided. The actual 

25 



Wfje JWastera of tfje aKHttbernesa 

dealing with the natives was restricted to the 
two officials known as traders, and none of the 
Company's other servants was permitted to 
deal with them except on rare occasions. The 
trade was necessarily carried on mostly during 
the summer when the rivers were free from ice, 
but sometimes when the hunting-ground was 
near, the Indians would come in during the 
winter with snowshoes and dog sleds. When 
the Indian was dissatisfied with the price 
offered for his furs, they were passed back 
to him. No compulsion ostensibly was em- 
ployed; he might either keep his skins or 
starve, for the trader knew that the struggles of 
the Indian were in vain, and like a charmed 
bird he must ultimately drop into the always 
open maw of the Company. 

The furs were weighed on a long-armed 
balance, such as even yet may be seen at the 
Astor House at Mackinac by those who visit 
the Old Post. The visitor there may also see 
an old iron press which was used in binding 
down the pelts into packs of 40 to 100 pounds 
each, for convenient management in the 
brigades of canoes which once a year carried to 
the coast the spoil of the forests and the 
streams and returned laden with supplies from 
the ships. 

The Indian received a wooden peg for each 
"castor" in value of his winter catch — the 
" castor " or "made beaver " being the medium 
of exchange and valued at one to two shillings 

26 



W$t jfflaster* of tfje WMbtvntste 

per pound. The beaver, which was most 
sought for originally, is now almost as extinct 
as the buffalo, and its place has been taken by 
the marten. 

The thought instinctively arises that the 
Company took a great risk in thus trusting the 
native sense of honor in giving credit for the 
year's supplies, but it was very rare for the 
Indian to fail to appear, and only did he fail 
when very unusual obstacles were encountered. 
When he did not return to the post, but dis- 
posed of his furs to the free trader or a rival 
company, a detail of two or three of his tribe 
were sent after him with instructions not to 
return without bringing him back for judg- 
ment. Eight months or a year might possibly 
elapse before he was traced to his remote 
retreat in the bush, but eventually he or his 
scalp was surely brought in by his haggard and 
wayworn captors. 

The Indians, always the most numerous of 
the Company's servants, lost much of their 
importance in course of time. The em- 
ployees of the Company were originally 
Indians and Highland Scotch, but lured by the 
love of adventure and the "bright face of 
danger," gradually there crept in from the 
south the voyageurs, coureurs de bois, and half- 
breeds from the French settlements in Lower 
Canada, who took to the wild life with the 
utmost avidity and combined the skill and 
woodcraft of the Indian with the happy, dash- 

27 



®be Jfflaatera of tfje WliMvntxx 

ing, and debonair ways of the French. The 
" half-breeds " constitute at present a very 
important part of the Canadian population 
and deserve some reference to their origin. 

From the very first it had been customary 
among the English employees, and is yet 
for that matter, to take what was called a 
" country wife" from among the tribes around 
the fort, and when the trader left the country 
he always made provision for the support of his 
" country wife" and the invariably numerous 
family. These marriages between the whites 
and the natives were so common and so fruitful 
that sometimes in later years the entire 
summer population around the fort could with 
difficulty show a single full-blood Indian, and 
some entire tribes at present can show no single 
individual of pure descent. 

There is an account in Irving 's Astoria of 
one of these marriages where the diplomatic 
McDougall, a chief factor, thinking to improve 
his business by means of an Indian alliance, 
conceived the idea of seeking the hand of a 
native princess, the daughter of the one-eye 
Comcomly who held sway over the fishing 
tribe of the Chinooks. "By conference after 
conference and multiple negotiations the pre- 
liminaries were at length settled and the chief 
promised to bring to the fort his daughter, 
who is represented as having one of the flat- 
test and most aristocratic heads in the tribe. 
The worthy sachem landed in princely style, 
28 



W&t fflas&tv* of ttje 'WLilbzvnts& 

arrayed in a bright blue blanket and a red 
breech clout, with an extra quantity of paint 
and feathers, and attended by a train of half- 
naked warriors and nobles. A horse was in 
waiting for the princess, and mounting her 
behind one of the clerks she was conveyed, coy 
but compliant, to the fortress, where she was 
received with devout, though decent, joy by 
her expectant bridegroom. Her bridal adorn- 
ments, it is true, at first caused some little dis- 
may, for she had painted and anointed herself 
for the occasion according to the Chinook 
custom. However, by generous use of soap 
and water, she was freed from all adventitious 
tint and fragrance and entered into the nuptial 
state the cleanest princess that had ever been 
known among the somewhat unctuous tribe of 
the Chinooks." 

When a particularly punctilious factor could 
not bring himself to consider a native marriage 
in this fashion and his long absence from home 
had obliterated the memory of his earlier 
sweethearts, he took refuge in that ever-present 
caterer to all the necessities of life and ordered a 
wife from the Company with less concern than 
he would order a new axe. In one instance the 
safe arrival of the wife thus ordered was ac- 
knowledged as follows: "Received, one wife 
in fair condition; hope she will prove good, 
though she is certainly a rum one to look at." 

The usual method of securing a wife was 
much more summary and far less ceremonious. 

29 



W$t JWaster* of tije VHtlbeme^ 

A few insignificant presents were given in 
exchange and the native parent at once became 
the proud and morganatic father-in-law. As 
a result of this custom the number of half- 
breeds, both French and English, rapidly 
increased. These people possessed the fierce- 
ness of their Indian mothers, together with the 
high intelligence and capacity for affairs of 
their white sires and for many years worked 
admirably into the pattern of the Company. 
Eventually however they wearied of the exac- 
tions and impositions, and in a later movement 
of this drama we shall meet them again burn- 
ing with indignation against the Company. 
The Indians in the meantime were subjected 
for decade after decade to unceasing pressure 
and discipline that gradually weeded out the 
old ideas and habits. The characters that 
would not mold went down and a distinctive 
individual grew up that was known as the 
" Hudson Bay Indian," an individual that 
possessed, in a remarkable degree, the highly 
essential quality of woodcraft, together with a 
docility, a reliability, and a sense of duty that 
made him absolutely irreplaceable. 

Until the arrival of the missionary, the trend 
of Indian character was quite steadily upward 
in all those qualities that make him a steady 
and efficient fur collector. Considering the 
conditions and the general attitude of the Com- 
pany, it is hardly surprising that, in spite of the 
terms of the charter, so many difficulties were 

30 



W<bt jWatfter* of tfje OTUberne** 

placed in the way of the missionary, whom 
pressure from home eventually compelled the 
Company to receive. This opposition to the 
missionaries is said to have inspired the remark 
that the initials H.B.C., that appear in the 
lower and outer quarter of the far-flung banner 
of the Company, should signify "Here before 
Christ." 

It has been claimed since, as a proof of their 
Christian character, that the Indians rarely 
murder, and that large crimes are uncommon, 
but so it was, except in warfare, before the 
missionary arrived, and since then the Indian, 
sure of absolution, has become a sneak and a 
hypocrite, and does not hesitate to commit 
theft and many other small crimes. The effect 
produced by two missions, such as the Catholic 
Church and Church of England, when they 
were located at the same post, was always 
subversive. 

The missionaries at any rate have always 
earnestly and unitedly opposed the use of 
whisky in the fur trade. The Company also 
denounced the custom in public with much 
noise, but secretly it connived at the distribu- 
tion of whisky by its servants. This fact is 
frankly admitted by every chief factor who has 
left records of his stewardship. It certainly 
was freely used during the great rivalry of 
the companies, and it is quite believable that 
earlier and even in later times these shrewd 
traders never lost a pelt for lack of a drink of 

31 



Cije Jfflaster* of tfje WtSLiMvnt&x 

whisky. It is largely true at present that the 
Indian cannot obtain whisky from the posts, 
and while this is pointed out as a virtue, it may 
be added that in this respect the Company is 
only obeying a stringent law of the Dominion 
which forbids the sale of liquor by anybody to 
the Indians. Neither the missionary nor the 
Company ever in any degree influenced the 
Indian in this respect; the only way to secure 
abstinence was the total deprivation which the 
Dominion enforced. The missionary work has 
progressed quite rapidly since 1850, and now 
the natives about Hudson Bay, Lake Winni- 
peg, on the Mackenzie River, throughout 
British Columbia, and on the great savannahs 
of Assiniboia are largely Christianized. The 
missionaries also, as the Company feared, 
became a means for the distribution of infor- 
mation from the interior. With the knowledge 
of the abundant returns that anyone could 
secure in the fur trade, it is not surprising that 
opposition to the grasping monopoly should 
arise and many, either as individuals or as 
companies, attempted to share in the rich spoil 
of the Hudson Bay Territory. 

Bryce states that there are frequent allusions 
in the minutes of the Company, during the 
first fifty years of its existence, to the arrest 
and punishment even of servants and em- 
ployees who secreted valuable furs on their 
homeward voyage for the purpose of disposing 
of them. 

32 



Wbz JWaster* of tije OTittiernestf 

Until the last thirty-five years, moreover, 
the Company maintained its privileges, with 
the greatest firmness and success. For over 
a hundred years from its origin, that is, until 
the formation of the Northwest Company, no 
rivalry worthy of 'the name arose to cause 
annoyance, and in consequence the forts still 
remained in close proximity to Hudson Bay, 
to which the natives for hundreds of miles east, 
west, north, and south would repair for trade. 
Ship after ship laden with priceless furs drove 
steadily eastward, and from the public sales a 
golden stream flowed steadily into the coffers 
of the Company. We can easily imagine the 
great concern of the stockholders in the olden 
days upon the arrival at Gravesend of the 
annual packet, freighted with fruits of the 
adventure, and the pleasant reaction when the 
treasure was removed from the great hold of 
the ship, and piled high in the spacious ware- 
houses of the Company, there to await a favor- 
able time for sale at public auction. It was at 
Gravesend, also, that the outward-bound ships 
were piled deep with muzzle-loading fowling- 
pieces and ammunition, with brass kettles, 
knives, hatchets, tobacco, glass beads, flints, 
mirrors, and red lead, and thence they sailed 
regularly, about the first of June, and were not 
heard from again until October. 

When the ships arrived at the bay, the forts 
were visited in turn, their stores replenished, 
and their furs taken on board. Each fort was 

33 



Wf&t ffltettvti of tfje WBObttrttM 

charged with the goods delivered and credited 
with commodities returned, all in "castors" or 
"made beaver" skins. For many years, this 
simple method was sufficient, but when com- 
petition arose and the forts spread to the heads 
of the rivers, to the interior, and to the passes 
in the mountains, it became necessary to make 
up the supplies for the different forts and send 
them by paddle and portage to the many 
dependent posts, hundreds or even thousands 
of miles in the "hinterland," and the discipline 
of the Company was so excellent and so exact- 
ing that to this day the evidence of a success- 
ful trip in the great Canadian wilderness in the 
mind of the Indian guide is when he can say to 
his employer that the journey has been made 
"without breaking a canoe or losing a pack." 
Besides preserving in the utmost secrecy the 
true nature of its possessions, the Company 
actively proclaimed the adverse and repellent 
story that the entire domain was a vast and 
desolate waste frozen by the icy blasts of 
winter, covered by snow, devoid of food and 
shelter, forbidding in aspect, the soil rocky and 
sterile, and inhabited only by ferocious beasts 
and not less savage Indians. Everywhere are 
found allusions to the dreadful dangers and 
hazards to life which the traveler encounters 
who ventures into this menacing domain. 
Traveling was made difficult, and the presence 
of strangers was a source of irritation and 
resentment. The "free trader," that knight- 

34 



®t)e jWaster* of tfte OTtlbernestf 

errant of the forests, was constantly exposed to 
the Company's displeasure, for trading in the 
territory as we have seen was absolutely for- 
bidden, and the "free trader" intercepted the 
natives on the journey to the fort and secured 
the precious furs. Many devices were em- 
ployed to deter, circumvent, or destroy him. 
By one method a couple of Indians were put 
upon his trail to keep him moving and to warn 
off the natives from commerce with him. 
They interfered with his food supply, broke his 
traps, crept up and destroyed his snowshoes, 
and stole or killed his sled dogs. In the end he 
left the country, or starved, resistance being 
immediately fatal. Or, again, he was captured 
and brought to the post, and compelled to 
promise to leave the country ferever, his 
return being equivalent to a death sentence. 
Occasionally, he would be conveyed fifty 
or a hundred miles from the post under 
guard and then released with a few ounces 
of pemmican, his gun, and two loads of 
ammunition. Thus "without the shedding 
of blood" many a trader has been sent on 
la longue traverse, as it was named, but few 
ever lived to reach the settlement. When 
persistent, the "free trader" never returned 
to his home, and later his bones might be 
found whitening near the site of his little 
camp. Accidents are sudden, fatalities are 
not investigated, and death ever stalks in the 
wake of adventure. Many might suspect, but 

35 



tCfje ifflaster* of tfje WHiibtxntXX 

none ever knew what mysterious agency had 
caused his death. 

But the methods employed against "free 
traders" singly were powerless against them in 
combination. 

Far to the south, where the mighty St. 
Lawrence boils in fury among the sunken rocks, 
the city of Montreal was slowly assuming a 
dominant place, and from this stronghold in 
the south an aggressive and persistent foe 
began to percolate through the rivers, lakes, 
and meandering streams and through the path- 
less forests, to demand battle from these 
"Lords of the North." Duluth had explored 
the north shore of Lake Superior and traded 
with the Indians around Lake Nepigon. 
Verandrye, and his sons, still in search of the 
elusive Northwest Passage, this time by way 
of the Great Lakes, had pushed up through the 
Rainy Lake and River, to Lake of the Woods 
and thence on to Lake Winnipeg and the Sas- 
katchewan, their hearts beating high with hope 
as expanse after expanse of water stretched out 
before them until they faced defeat and death 
at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. 

With the capture of Quebec by Wolfe in 
1759 the English were left in sole and undis- 
puted possession of the North country, and 
first Alexander Henry and afterward Finlay 
began to trade in the Lake Superior region. 
Following them came Frobisher, Cadot, Pang- 
man, McTavish, Mackenzie, and other "free 

36 



W&t Jflaster* of tfje WlilbtvntXX 

traders," who a few years after (1783-84) com- 
bined their efforts under the name of the 
Northwest Company with headquarters at 
Montreal. With the appearance of this 
determined foe, an astonishing activity began 
in exploration and in opening up new avenues 
for trade. Except for the ill-fated voyage of 
the "Albany" and the "Discovery" shortly 
after the granting of the charter, no attempt 
had been made by the Company to discover 
the Northwest Passage according to the terms 
of the grant, until, goaded and shamed by 
enemies at home, the notable expedition of 
Hearne was sent out in 1769, resulting in the 
discovery and survey of the Coppermine River. 

In 1789, five years after the formation of the 
Northwest Company, Mackenzie, one of the 
enterprising partners, pushed north from the 
"Northwester's" fort on Lake Atabasca, 
entered Great Bear Lake, and thence passed 
down to the Arctic Ocean by the river which 
now bears his name. 

The old Company was then in a position 
where surrender or war to the knife were the 
only alternatives. It chose the latter, and 
stretching out its arms from the forts on Hud- 
son Bay, it began to parallel the aggressive 
actions of the Northwest Company and 
planted fort after fort along the great trails 
and water highways of the vast interior, from 
the Frozen Ocean to the sources of the Missis- 
sippi and from Hudson Bay to the waters of 

37 



Wfje Jflaster* of tfte WSLiMvntX* 

the Western Sea. Many bloody battles were 
fought between the employees of the rival 
companies, whose forts frequently were located 
not more than two hundred yards apart. 
Meanwhile in England the officers of the Com- 
pany, whom Lord Bolingbroke, pestered to 
madness, had called the "smug and ancient 
gentlemen," brought every influence to bear at 
court to secure aid in the maintenance of the 
monopoly and assistance in preventing its 
infringement. 

Spurred into action by the ceaseless activity 
and encroachment of its great rival, the Com- 
pany now shook off the sloth of a hundred 
years, during which abundant dividends had 
checked the ambition and restrained the 
imagination of the men at the head of affairs, 
and for the first time made bold and vigorous 
war for the retention of its inheritance. The 
deeds of audacity and valor, of fortitude and 
unwearied endeavor which were performed by 
the rivals during the next thirty years will 
always live among the most thrilling adven- 
tures that ever graced the romantic and 
enthralling pages of history, and might well 
take rank with the strenuous deeds of the old 
Homeric era. 

During this short period Mackenzie finally 
succeeded after incredible hardships in crossing 
the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific shore 
(1793). Lewis and Clark reached the Pacific 
by way of Columbia (1805). Simon Frazer 

38 



W$t Jfflasters of tfje S2littiente*s 

discovered and explored the river that bears 
his name and also reached the Pacific (1808). 
David Thompson, by way of the Saskatchewan 
and Columbia, and the Astorians, by the over- 
land route, both reached the Pacific in the same 
year (181 1). These hardy and adventurous 
spirits have all left chronicles of their exploits 
that are well worth perusal. Absorbing as 
fiction and fascinating by reason of the 
romantic associations, the career of each stands 
boldly forth and challenges our admiration as 
an epic of human endeavor. 

Chains of forts were interwoven in a vast 
web across the face of the Northland, the game 
was wantonly destroyed, and only the Indians 
thrived while the giants cast dice with fate. 

In 1 81 6 the great rivals had absorbed or 
ruined eleven other partnerships and were 
themselves on the verge of destruction from 
the force and fury of their long and sanguinary 
battle. Affairs then culminated in the mas- 
sacre of Governor Semple of the Hudson's Bay 
Company with twenty of his followers by the 
half-breeds and Indians in the service of the 
Northwest Company. This occurred at Seven 
Oaks in the midst of the harassed Red River 
settlement. Both companies recoiled in horror 
from this deed. Both now recognized that a 
treaty or compromise in some form was abso- 
lutely imperative. Happily a truce was 
arranged through the intervention of Hon. 
Edward Ellice, and then in 182 1 the Northwest 

39 



mn Jteters; of tfje OTtlbernes* 

Company was absorbed and the united inter- 
ests were placed under the management of 
Governor Simpson, one of the great men of the 
Hudson's Bay Company. The old corpora- 
tion again found itself in full and complete 
control. By this merger the Company was 
provided with a vastly increased number of 
men and forts and every facility for the pursuit 
of trade. By combining the influence of the 
old and new, they again secured legal recogni- 
tion of their monopoly of the fur trade, not only 
over the region of Hudson Bay which they 
already owned, but also over the entire Pacific 
and Arctic watersheds. 

A period of prosperity and romantic adven- 
ture followed. On the western shore of Lake 
Superior, thirty miles north of the international 
boundary line, was located Fort William, the 
principal post of the confederated companies, 
and every year the chief factors and chief 
traders from all the interior forts repaired 
thither to meet in general council the partners 
from Montreal. These expeditions were con- 
ducted with much ceremony and resembled 
the progress of a Highland chieftain with his 
numerous, if ragged, retinue. 

No splendid ostentation was possible; no 
glitter and sheen save that of their weapons 
and paddles; no flaunting guidon save only the 
banner of the Company; no flourish of music 
save only the human voice signalized the rapid 
march of these dour potentates of the wilder- 

40 



®fje Jfflaster* of tfje OTtlberne&s 

ness. Yet even with scanty accessories the 
half-breeds and Indians through temperament 
and instinct were enabled to create a dashing 
and dramatic appearance. 

Thus from the forts of the remote Pacific to 
the shores of Hudson Bay, from the eternal ice 
of the North, where the Dance of the Dead ,n 
Men sheds a fitful light upon the long Arctic ( 
night, to the tumultuous floods of the St. 
Lawrence, brigades of canoes might be seen in 
the spring of the year converging toward the 
blue and icy waters of the Great Lake. The 
high spirits of the voyageurs kept the paddles 
flashing merrily, and while the forests re- 
sounded with such songs as " Malbrouck s'en 
va-t-en guerre" and "A la claire fontaine" the 
hardy canoe men would run the rapide or track 
the canoes up the swift waters. 

With packs ranging from one hundred to 
three hundred pounds suspended by headstrap, 
or tumpline, they would run the portages 
with zeal and good-natured rivalry. With 
one hundred and fifty pounds they would trav- 
erse a nine-mile portage and return in six hours. 
When the brigades arrived within a few hours 
of a post they camped until early the follow- 
ing morning, and then dressing in their most 
picturesque apparel with gaudy feathers and 
ribbons streaming from caps and garters and 
singing their most rollicking song, they put the 
utmost vigor of their sinewy arms into the 
bending paddles and swept madly down upon 

41 



Wbt jffflastera of tije WliXbtvntxx 

the post. They arrived at the landing with 
speed unchecked, and while the spectator held 
his breath in anticipation of seeing them dashed 
to pieces, the canoe in mid-career was brought 
to a full stop in the space of a few inches by a 
powerful and united back stroke. Here disci- 
pline was relaxed, drinking was the order of the 
day, and even the lordly partners, their business 
council concluded, entered upon such enthusi- 
astic and uproarious revels that their occasional 
echoes still rebound from the cliffs and heights 
of Thunder Bay to far distant Montreal. 

In considering the decline of the "Great 
Company," one has only to contemplate the 
slow decay of a romantic ideal fraught with 
high and adventurous possibilities and the 
ultimate lapse into a crass commercialism. In 
this chronicle there is no opportunity to exhibit 
magnificent buildings ornamented with a 
wealth of architecture nor innumerable armies 
winning great victories, neither gorgeous 
decorations nor oriental splendor, but the 
attention must be directed to a supreme crea- 
tion of nature decorated with boundless forests 
and limitless plains, upon whose vast expanse 
mighty rivers and magnificent lakes have been 
poured with a prodigal hand and in whose very 
midst man, uninspired man, has toiled and 
moiled, has wrought and riven, and has done 
his deathless deeds in the solitude and in the 
silence, unheralded and unseen, in true heroic 
measure. 

42 



Wbt iWaster* of tfje W$liMvnt&# 

In the last chapter, it is necessary to trace 
the decline of the romance, the elision of the 
poetry, the removal of the glamor which the 
dauntless deeds of the woodsmen in their 
picturesque environment have hung like halos 
over the posts of the Hudson's Bay Company. 
To the illumined mind a dim and vapory 
nimbus still lingers hauntingly over these 
historic spots, but in the very fulness of 
fruition the disintegration of the Company's 
career was begun. For forty years it con- 
tinued at the zenith of its glory, the woods 
were filled with the voyageurs, ships came and 
went bearing supplies and pelts, over 150,000 
Indians spent their laborious lives in gleaning 
the wealth of the forests and streams, and over 
3,000 employees took charge of the t commod- 
ities from the sale of which over 60 per cent 
profit was annually distributed as dividends. 

Vigilantly the governor kept watch and ward 
over its rights and privileges and the pressure 
exercised by his fine machiavellian fingers was 
felt by the American commissioners at every 
stage of the negotiation of the Oregon Treaty, 
which involved the forts on the Columbia 
River as well as the Island of Vancouver. The 
Canadian Pacific grant found secret but obsti- 
nate opposition from the same source. Mean- 
while knowledge of the great wealth in the 
interior spread farther and farther, and more 
frequent and more determined attempts were 
made to penetrate the rigid barricade. More 

43 



Wfje Jfflaater* of tfte WLiMvnt&X 

numerous and more extensive breaches were 
made in the Company's defenses by rivals and 
free traders, but they were superficial and 
trivial. In the bold and aggressive exterior 
there was not the slightest sign to mark the real 
and vital danger which existed inside. For 
one hundred and fifty years the Company had 
successfully beaten off the only enemy capable 
of destroying its splendid organization. A 
change occurred; a strong man appeared with 
a fixed idea, the opposition was overcome, and 
the colonization long repelled was immediately 
inaugurated. One is not greatly astonished 
to learn that the man who innocently and 
benevolently produced the conditions that 
were to reduce the Company to an allotropic 
form was a man who stood high in the councils 
of the directory. 

When the poor peasants were expelled from 
the Highland glens and crofts of Kildonan in 
order that the proprietors might secure game 
preserves, the philanthropic Earl of Selkirk, 
who owned nearly one-third of the stock of the 
Company, conceived the plan that these people 
might be transferred to the boundless plains of 
the fertile but undeveloped regions around 
Lake Winnipeg. Through his connection with 
the Company, he was able to purchase 
110,000 square miles of land which surrounded 
the junction of the Assiniboia and Red Rivers. 
In 181 1 his first colony of seventy people 
arrived in three vessels at Fort York, but so 

44 



€f)e jfWaater* of tije W&ilbzvntxx 

late in the season that it was impossible to 
complete the journey. Wintering at Fort 
York, they started in the spring on their long 
and toilsome trip by river and portage, up 
rocky ascents, over perilous passes and across 
a 300-mile expanse of open lake, and at last 
arrived at their destination. This settlement 
they first named Fort Douglas, in honor of 
Selkirk, but after the massacre it was called 
Fort Garry, and later became the present city 
of Winnipeg. 

The Company used this event in later years 
to prove that it favored colonization, but this 
was solely for argument, since it not only did 
not aid and was in no way responsible for the 
colonization, but consistently and steadfastly 
opposed the Selkirk settlement and continually 
placed obstacles in the way of its success. The 
men at Fort Garry were joined by other colo- 
nists during the next three years, until they 
numbered two hundred and eighty. For fif- 
teen years, however, it was an open question 
whether the colony would survive or perish. 

Surrounded by Indians, wild beasts, and 
other strange dangers, combating extreme 
droughts and most unusual floods, intense heat 
and extreme cold, plagues of grasshoppers and 
crop failures, they surmounted all only to be 
nearly swept out of existence by the warfare of 
the Hudson's Bay Company and the North- 
westers, wherein the site of the colony was per- 
sistently used as a battleground. 

45 



Wfje Jfflastera of tfje OTtlbernesfl 

The export of the products of the colony, 
such as buffalo tallow, was hindered and even 
prevented. The settler could not engage in 
the fur trade without forfeiting his lands; 
enormous and prohibitive tariffs were charged 
on freights to be exported through the Com- 
pany's stores on Hudson Bay. The irritation 
produced by these methods and the resentment 
felt toward the Company steadily increased. 
At St. Paul, where the settlers secured supplies 
and a trade outlet, their irritation was com- 
mended and their resentment craftily inflamed. 
The efforts of the Company were constantly 
exerted to hold the lid on the boiling Red River 
colony and to prevent further invasion. 

For a time submission was the rule, and 
when the French and English half-breeds, 
headed by Isbister, forwarded a long memorial 
to the Secretary for the Colonies setting forth 
their grievances, the controversy waxed fierce 
and the troubles became acute. A French 
settler bought goods, intending to start a 
trading expedition to Lake Manitoba. The 
Company arrested, imprisoned him, and con- 
fiscated his goods, according to its custom. 
Hundreds of half-breeds poured into the settle- 
ment, and under Louis Riel, the father, the 
prisoner was rescued. Five years later a peti- 
tion signed by six hundred half-breeds reciting 
grievances and requesting legislative instruc- 
tion was presented to the Assembly of Canada. 
Unrest, continual disorder, and growing 

46 



W$t iMaster* of tfje OTtlbernes* 

strength of the colony marked the next ten 
years. In 1857 the Toronto Board of Trade 
petitioned the Assembly to open up the 
territories of the Hudson's Bay Company 
to trade. 

In 1857 also Chief Justice Draper appeared 
as representative of Canadian interests before 
a committee of the House of Commons, and 
in consequence Vancouver Island, which the 
Company held under a twenty-one years' 
lease, was squeezed out of its grasp. The 
report of the proceedings is most interesting 
and the fence between witness and counsel has 
not been excelled in any later proceedings. 

This was a period of great anxiety to the 
Company, and justly so, for the end was most 
surely approaching. Next we learn in 1862 
that Governor Berens, old and obstinate, the 
last of the "smug and ancient gentlemen," 
was approached, and ultimately induced to sell 
outright to a Canadian syndicate, with modern 
ideas, the rights of the Company in Canada 
for $7,500,000. Great alarm and indignation 
were produced by this astonishing act among 
the chief factors and chief traders who had 
been regarded as having some partnership 
rights in the Great Company, according to the 
plans of union in 1821. However, they were 
bought off, pensioned, and placated. The 
new partners now began a clever warfare 
against yielding up any of the Company's 
vested rights, and for ten years they kept up 

47 



W&t fflaxttv* of tfte WBLWbtcnt** 

a brave fight against their impending and 
inevitable fate. The newspapers were util- 
ized and social and financial pressure was 
brought to bear on the Legislative Assembly, 
and on the House of Commons. Money was 
poured forth in great abundance, and every 
device was employed that the greatest and 
most ingenious legal talent could suggest to 
avoid the surrender of its monopoly, but the 
times had changed and the ten years' effort 
was all in vain. 

The confederation movement had widened 
the horizon of Canadian public men. In 1867, 
the year of confederation, Hon. William 
McDougall moved in the Dominion Parlia- 
ment a series of resolutions which showed the 
advantages, both to Canada and to the 
Empire, of the Dominion being extended to 
the Pacific. He showed that settlement, com- 
merce, and the development of the resources 
of a country are dependent upon a stable 
government; that the welfare of the Red River 
settlers would be enhanced; that provision 
was contained in the British North American 
Act for the admission of Rupert's Land and 
the Northwest Territory to the Dominion; 
that this wide country should be united to 
Canada; that in case of union the rights 
of any corporation, as the Hudson's Bay, 
association or individual, should be respected; 
that this should be settled judicially or by 
agreement; that the Indian title should be 
48 



®ije jfWaster* of tfje OTtiberneSS 

extinguished, and that an address should be 
made to Her Majesty to this effect. 

The resolutions were passed by a large 
majority of the House. The Company, driven 
to the wall, made a determined stand for 
terms. The Imperial Government insisted 
that the resolutions should prevail, and also 
that the Company should demand only reason- 
able compensation. It was finally agreed that 
the Company should relinquish all rights in 
Rupert's Land and Northwest Territory; that 
Canada should pay to the Company $1,500,- 
000; that the Company should retain blocks of 
land around the posts which amounted to 
about 50,000 acres (a most valuable conces- 
sion, since the posts were always most favor- 
ably placed); that the Company be given 
outright one-twentieth of all the arable land of 
the relinquished territory, namely, the eighth 
and twenty-sixth square miles of every town- 
ship ; that the rights of half-breeds and Indians 
should be respected, and that the Company 
should be allowed every privilege in carrying on 
trade as a regular trading company. In 1870, 
just two hundred years from the granting of the 
charter, the Imperial Decree was passed, and 
the Hudson's Bay Company, whose word had 
been law over 3,000,000 square miles of terri- 
tory, subsided into a simple trading company 
in the Dominion of Canada. 

The transfer, however, did not take place 
without disturbance, for the restive half-breeds 

49 



W$t jfflaster* of tije 2B3tlberne*tf 

of the Red River country, fearing that their 
rights would not be respected, and aided and 
abetted, as many believed, by disappointed 
and rebellious factors in the Company's 
service, entered upon an armed rebellion under 
Louis Riel, the son. And the old fur route 
from Fort William, where the life of the Com- 
pany had pulsed for years, now felt keenly 
conscious of the changed conditions when 
Colonel Wolseley and his men traversed the 
waters of Rainy River and Lake, Lake of the 
Woods, and Lake Winnipeg, and landed at 
Fort Garry, the seat of an insurrection which 
promptly subsided on the appearance of the 
troops. 

Since the surrender of its charter, thirty- 
eight years have slipped away, during which 
the Company has continued its fur trade, but 
the forts have changed; the stockades have 
been taken down ; the Indian now is permitted 
to approach and even to enter the sacred pre- 
cincts of the factor's residence; the posts are 
gradually withdrawn as the country settles up, 
and at the headquarters in Winnipeg, where its 
downfall began, the Company, miserabile dictu, 
has a large mail-order house, and from this 
point it conducts its immense land business 
which promises to develop almost fabulous 
returns. 

In 1890 the lands then surveyed, which 
were set aside for the Company, amounted 
to 7,000,000 acres, which were valued at 

50 



Wi)t Jffla£ter£ of tfte S23tibet nes& 

$20,000,000, and every year sees accretions to 
the amount of territory as the survey of the 
Dominion proceeds, and every year the land 
increases in value and adds a potent incre- 
ment to the already bursting vaults of the 
Company. More fortunate than the East 
India Company, whose rapacity compelled the 
government to deprive it of its prey, we find 
the Hudson's Bay Company in secure, peace- 
ful, and legal possession of an endless flow of 
gold. 

Thus we have witnessed the felicitous birth 
of the "Great Company," surrounded by the 
pomp and circumstance of royalty; we have 
seen its adventurous youth gradually merge 
into a robust and turbulent manhood against 
which none could prevail. With the approach 
of age the reins of power have been torn from 
those mighty hands, but in the midst of all the 
luxury that enormous wealth can supply and 
undisturbed by the tumult and the clamor, the 
lean and slippered pantaloon sees in dreamy 
retrospect the warfare and the conquests of the 
centuries, and views with filmy eye the slow 
procession of the years. Yet not in vain has 
the Company lived and not without gratitude 
should it pass away. In spite of many short- 
comings and selfish ambitions, the Company 
must be recognized as a powerful factor in the 
development of the New World. 

As the search for gold in 1849 opened our 
great western lands to settlement, as the search 

51 



W$t Jfflaster* of tlje OTitbernestf 

for Sir John Franklin resulted in an accurate 
survey of 6,000 miles of Arctic coast, so the 
search for a Northwest Passage has developed 
the fur trade, the pursuit of which has opened 
up to civilization and prosperity the immense 
territories of the Northland. But the Day of 
Destiny is close at hand; the fur and the 
forests in one involving ruin are doomed to 
disappear; the age of wheat and the settler 
looms large upon the horizon; railroads begin 
to penetrate the Dominion in the wake of the 
vanished fur brigades; the play is done; the 
curtain descends. 

The forts of the Company still dot the vast 
solitudes where fish and game abound, and 
veteran factors, grizzled in the service, extend 
a generous hospitality to those who thread the 
devious trails of the silent and brooding North, 
a hospitality so cordial that it would be 
deplorable to conclude without a word of 
tribute. 

Who can forget the delightful thrills of inter- 
est and anticipation when first the fort bursts 
into view? How quickly the tired arms 
receive new vigor! How eagerly the excited 
paddle dips the swirling waters! Who can 
fail to recall the laggard and reluctant depar- 
ture in the early dawn, as the sun streams over 
the edge of the forest and bathes in crimson 
glory the gently sinuous folds of the flag? 
Then quietly comes the factor down to the 
landing with messages for the next post, and a 

52 



W$t Jfflaster* ot tfje OTitliierne^ 

packet of letters for civilization. How care- 
fully he repeats his suggestions regarding the 
route, and how seriously admonishes concern- 
ing certain rapids or portages. Only by a 
transient gleam of the eye does he betray his 
own eagerness to become a bird of passage as 
he bids his guests a heartfelt farewell. 

The canoe grates away from the shore, the 
voices subside, the Indian steps silently into 
the stern, the steady sweep of the paddle 
begins — we leave with sober melancholy, and 
ever and always we breathe a fervid prayer 
that at least while we live it will be possible to 
launch the canoe upon the impetuous streams 
that wash the domain where the "lords of the 
wintry lakes and boundless forests" once held 
imperious sway, and when current anpl paddle 
bear us swiftly away that our lingering back- 
ward glance may rest upon the fort and behold 
at the top of the tall staff the slowly heaving 
folds of the blood-red banner of the Hudson's 
Bay Company. 



53 



W$t peaber Club 

SOME SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE FUR TRADE 



: Men of the High North, fierce mountains love you; 
Proud rivers leap when you ride on their breast. 
See, the austere sky, pensive above you, 
Dons all her jewels to smile on your rest. 
Children of Freedom, scornful of frontiers, 
We who are weaklings honor your worth. 
Lords of the Wilderness, Princes of Pioneers, 
Let's have a rouse that will ring round the earth." 
—Service, "Men of the High North." 



Ctje peatoer Club* 

In the New York Times of May 28, 1894, 
there appeared the following notice: 

At the auction sale yesterday of the property 
of the late actress, Rosina Vokes, at 9 W. 28th 
St., a snuffbox was sold for $41.00, and the 
purchaser exclaimed, so that all in the room 
could hear, "I would have given $1,000.00 
for that." Nearly everyone present smiled 
when the remark was made, thinking the 
purchaser was joking, but afterward he pro- 
duced a letter that showed he was deeply 
in earnest. It was dated May 26, at the 
Hoffman House, and was addressed to Mr. 
Brian C. Hughes by his cousin, E v Hughes. 
It said, "There will be a sale tomorrow at 
Kreiser's. The lost snuffbox is to be sold. 
I don't know how it got into the posses- 
sion of Rosina Vokes, but it is No. 581 
in the catalogue and was presented to 
your grandfather, James Hughes, by the 
Earl of Dalhousie. Its intrinsic value is 
about $200.00, but as a family heirloom it 
is worth five times that to you. It may go 
for a song." 

The snuffbox was a small affair of solid 
silver with gold edges, and upon the under 
side of its close-fitting lid was an inscription 
which read: "The Earl of Dalhousie to James 

* A paper read before the Society, March 4, 1913. 
57 



Wbe jffflaater* of tfje 2KBilbentestf 

Hughes, Esq., in remembrance of the Beaver 
Club, May 24, 1824." 1 

A friend whom Mr. Hughes met in the 
auction room expressed great interest in the 
souvenir and asked for its history. "Shall I 
make it short or long ?" inquired Mr. Hughes. 
"Long, by all means," urged his friend. 
"Then come with me to the hotel and I will 
tell you what it signifies." Carefully guard- 
ing his treasure in the pocket of his coat, 
with his hand tightly clasping it, Mr. Hughes 
led the way to his apartments where the 
silver snuffbox was unwrapped and placed 
upon the table, so that it reflected the warm 
glow of the afternoon sun. Seating them- 
selves comfortably in easy chairs the men 
lighted cigars and after a short pause, during 
which Mr. Hughes seemed to be arranging 
his material, he began: 

"The story has to do with about fifty years 
of Canadian history, in the making of which 
my grandfather and the Beaver Club took 
an active and important part. For this 
reason I have always been intensely interested 
in the Dominion. 

"You may not know that Sieur Verandrye 
was the last of the great French explorers — I 
say French, for though he was born at Three 
Rivers on the St. Lawrence, the village at that 

1 In a personal note to the writer Mr. Robert McCord 
of Montreal inclines to doubt the authenticity of the 
snuffbox. 

58 




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1:1 


If 



W&t peatoer Club 



time was under French rule. At the age of 
twelve he became a cadet, and nine years 
later he was sent abroad. After a varied 
and active experience in European wars he 
returned to Canada and entered the fur trade. 
This venturesome occupation only partially 
satisfied his ambition, for he longed passion- 
ately to discover the western sea which the 
tales of the Indians led him to believe was not 
far beyond the western shore of Lake Superior. 
His sons — equally temperamental — warmly 
embraced their father's aspirations. This 
was in 1731, and during the next ten years 
they discovered and explored the country 
around Lake of the Woods, built Fort la Reine 
on Lake Winnipeg, and pushed their expe- 
ditions along the greater portion of the 
Saskatchewan and as far into the interior as 
the sources of the Missouri. 

"Baffled and disappointed, Verandrye died 
with his quest undetermined, while his ener- 
getic sons were quickly destroyed by the 
parasites of an unseeing and inimical govern- 
ment. The Verandryes, nevertheless, had 
blazed the great trails over which adventurous 
fur traders were to carry the scattered banners 
of an industrial empire. The explorer died in 
1742, but before it was possible even partially 
to utilize the results of his work, the commercial 
hopes of France were extinguished; for in 1759 
the victorious Wolfe brought all New France 
under the British flag. 

59 



W$t iflaster* of tfje W&i\btvm*& 

"The commerce of Canada — which meant 
of course the fur trade — now became British, 
just as ten years earlier (1748) the brilliant 
successes of Clive had completely extinguished 
the French trading companies in India. 
French trade and French traders in fur 
almost disappeared, since large numbers of 
the most enterprising of these people betook 
themselves to France as a mark of resentment 
aga nst British control. 

"Canada already harbored a goodly pro- 
portion of former subjects of Great Britain, 
for upon the suppression of the Jacobite 
rebellion in 1745, many Scotchmen of noble 
family had been driven out of their Highland 
homes — some to France, and not a few to 
New France. The number of these Gaelic 
residents was greatly augmented also after 
the conquest, when the Highland regiments 
were disbanded and whole companies of the 
soldiers chose to remain in the new world. 
Later there was added a steady influx of 
royalist refugees — mostly Scotch — whom the 
American Revolution had driven from the 
colonies. Nor was this all, for the Hudson's 
Bay Company had early appreciated the 
desirable qualities of these people, and had 
brought hundreds of them across the sea to 
serve in its numerous trading depots. 

"In these several ways there grew up a 
large Scottish community in Canada where 
their racial peculiarities found an ample field 

60 



W$t peatoer Club 



for exploitation. With characteristic shrewd- 
ness they quickly perceived the vast possi- 
bilities of the fur trade, which had been forced 
out of the hands of the French, and they 
undertook its revival. Alexander Henry, in 
1760, was the first of the Scotchmen to follow 
in the path hewn out by dauntless and unde- 
spairing Verandrye. Then five years later 
came Curry, who with less ambition or more 
success found the results so satisfactory from 
his single expedition that he returned no more. 
After this the number rapidly increased. 
McTavish, James Finlay, the two Frobishers, 
Pond and Pangman were among the most 
prominent. Each of these daring traders — 
'peddler' the Hudson's Bay Company deri- 
sively called them — pushed farther and farther 
into the wilderness, until the country was 
interlaced with trails as far as Athabasca 
Lake on the north and to the steep barriers 
of the Rocky Mountains on the west. Over 
these trails, by travois and tumpline, moved 
a steady procession of costly furs. 

"In long files heavily laden canoes floated 
down the waterways of the great Northwest 
and converged upon Montreal. The city rose 
to the occasion. The trade expanded, but 
obstacles appeared. The Scotch merchants 
spoke French like Parisians, yet their narrow 
clannishness did not at first permit them to 
make use of the Canadian-French voyageur — a 
mistake which exposed their expeditions to 
61 



Wbe JWatfter* of tfje OHilbtrne** 

many unnecessary risks and to perils that were 
not easily or quickly overcome. 

"The French have always had a wonderful 
facility in attaching to themselves the natives 
of the country in which they reside, and this 
ability had nowhere been displayed to greater 
advantage than in their relations with the 
American Indians. The rigid mentality of 
the Scot did not lend itself quite so readily 
to the necessities of the business, and this, 
added to the dissatisfaction engendered by 
their own commercial rivalry, soon embittered 
the Indians against the Montreal merchants 
and their ruthless methods. More and more 
often the brigades were robbed of their goods, 
either going or coming, although the guards 
had frequently been doubled and trebled. 

"Needless to say the old lion couching 
calmly on Hudson's Bay soon realized that 
his hunting-grounds were invaded, his food 
supply threatened, and his feudal rights of a 
century challenged. But before entering upon 
an active campaign against the newcomers, 
the Hudson's Bay Company first played upon 
the fears and affections, as well as the darker 
passions, of the Redmen, to intensify their 
hatred of the Scotch traders. Under this 
influence the already hostile Indians were 
aroused to the fighting pitch, and they were 
gathering themselves for a general uprising 
that would drive out all the free traders when 
an epidemic of smallpox swept over the country 

62 



W$t peatoer Club 



with merciless fury. The entire Northwest 
was affected. Indian villages were decimated, 
whole tribes were extinguished, and the sur- 
vivors — mentally benumbed and physically 
exhausted — lost their spirit of aggression in 
their desperate efforts to sustain life. By the 
same deadly blight the fur trade was so nearly 
annihilated that in 1782 only twelve traders 
took brigades into the upper country. 

"While recovering from this depression, the 
Free Traders had a chance to think over the 
conditions of the business as well as the 
obstacles that confronted them, and in 1784 
they wisely concluded that their greatest 
good would be developed by combining their 
forces. The move was judicious, not only 
because in this way they could .best secure 
their brigades against the hostility of the 
Indians, but also the decimation of the tribes 
had reduced their profits to a point that 
forbade wasteful competition. Moreover the 
Hudson's Bay Company — alive to the new 
condition — had given up its policy of dignified 
indifference and could and did deliver its 
merchandise to the tribes on the Saskatchewan 
by its nearer northern route at least a month 
before the individual traders of Montreal 
could drive their canoes through the frozen 
Straits of Mackinac and the ice-bound waters 
of the Great Lakes. 

"So it happened, when the trade revived, 
that my grandfather and twenty-eight other 

63 



Wot JWastera of tije W&ilbtvntxx 

traders, all Scotch but two, united their forces 
in what was known as the Northwest Fur 
Company. It was agreed that the entire 
business management of the new company 
should be vested in the conjoined firms of 
McTavish and the Frobishers, while the other 
parties acting in concert should establish 
permanent posts at favorable points through- 
out the fur country, and remain in residence 
there. A small number of traders who for 
different reasons refused to join the North- 
west Company formed a combination of their 
own, which after a brief struggle of two seasons 
was absorbed by its stronger competitor. 

"In the history of trading companies — it is 
probable that the Northwest Fur Company has 
never been equaled in the thoroughness of its 
discipline, the energy of its operations, the 
courage of its promoters, and the scope of its 
trade. In fifteen years its business annually 
amounted to 106,000 beaver skins and 65,000 
other peltries, conducted by an army of about 
2,000 men, not including the Indians. The 
capital required by the agents in Montreal, 
the number of men employed, the vast quanti- 
ties of goods sent out, and the enormous store 
of furs received in exchange — all combined to 
make the business of this company the most 
important in Canada, a condition which pro- 
moted if it did not produce an almost uni- 
versal neglect of agriculture, manufactures, 
and transportation. Upon the huge profits 

64 



®fje peaber Club 



of such an extensive business the members of 
the Northwest Company soon acquired the 
'wealth of the Indiaman, which they ex- 
pended with as much careless liberality as 
their national prototypes, the Nabobs.' Some 
bought seigniories, built mansions, or even 
purchased estates in the old country, to which 
they retired to live a life of specious and pre- 
ternatural sobriety. Others used their wealth 
for nobler ends, and McGill University stands 
as a lasting monument to the wise foresight and 
high civic pride of one of the partners. 

"Sometimes one or more of the partners 
would go to New York on a tour of pleasure 
or curiosity. On these occasions, says Irving, 
' there was always a degree of magnificence of 
the purse about them and a peeuliar pro- 
pensity to visit the jewelers for rings, chains, 
brooches, necklaces, jeweled watches, and 
other costly trinkets, partly for themselves 
and partly for their female acquaintances, 
and all their actions were marked by a kind 
of gorgeous prodigality.' 

"Having long periods of leisure and a 
superabundance of animal spirits, the part- 
ners soon felt the necessity for a place in 
Montreal wherein they could disport them- 
selves with the same untrammeled license 
that they enjoyed in the wilderness. Now, 
among the partners gratification followed 
desire with hardly a time interval, so that in 
1785 nineteen of them who happened to be 

65 



Wfje JHaster* of tfje 3KBttbernea* 

in Montreal assembled one day to form the 
Beaver Club, an organization which was as 
interesting from its social importance as it 
was notable for the immense power it wielded, 
both commercially and politically. 

"The object of the Club as stated in the 
by-laws was to bring together at stated periods 
during the winter season a set of men highly 
respectable in society, who had spent their 
best days in a savage country, and had en- 
countered the hazards and hardships incident 
to the pursuit of the fur trade in Canada. 
The one indispensable requirement for mem- 
bership was that the candidate should have 
passed at least one winter in the Canadian 
wilderness. At first the incorporators main- 
tained a rigid exclusiveness, but later their 
ranks were opened, and the limit of member- 
ship placed at fifty-five with ten honorary 
places. Why this number was chosen is not 
known, but the rule was strictly adhered to 
thereafter, and admission was secured only 
by unanimous vote. 

"Each year the social gatherings were in- 
augurated by a dinner which all the members 
residing in Montreal were obliged to attend. 
At the same time they were required to notify 
the secretary if they should find themselves 
so situated as to prevent their attendance 
during the season, otherwise they were 'con- 
sidered of the party and subject to the rules 
of the Club.' The Club assumed powers 

66 



®be peaber Club 



which in the present day would be strongly 
resisted, as, for instance, the provision that 
' no member shall have a party at his home on 
Club days nor accept invitations elsewhere, 
but if in town must attend unless prevented 
by illness.' Fortnightly meetings were held 
as a routine throughout the winter from 
December to April, and in addition there was 
a summer club for the captains of the fur 
vessels who in some instances were honorary 
members. 

"At the regular gatherings an opportunity 
was offered of introducing into society such 
traders as might from time to time return 
from the Indian country. They were first 
invited as guests, and if eligible from standing 
and character they might by ballot become 
members of the Club. 

" Each formal session was opened by passing 
the pipe of peace (calumet) according to the 
Indian custom, after which an officer appointed 
for the purpose made a suitable harangue. 
Then followed in their proper order the regu- 
larly established list of Club toasts, five in 
number, which were obligatory, but after 
these had gone round, the members and guests 
were at liberty to follow their inclinations. 

"In imagination we can see these magnates 
sporting on their manly breasts the gold medal 
of the Club whereon the Company's motto, 
"Fortitude in Distress," was elaborately 
engraved — a badge of honor which by the 

67 



GTfje JWasterS of tfje OTtibernestf 

rules they were obliged to wear on these 
occasions. Richly adorned with ruffles and 
a profusion of gold lace, with knee breeches 
above their gold-clasped garters and silver- 
buckled shoes, the partners sat in state at 
their great mahogany table, while the huge 
fireplace snapped and roared with its load 
of giant logs and threw wave upon wave of 
heat toward the banqueters whose servants 
plied them with luxuries from the east and 
the west in regular relays. There was game 
from the forests and plains, fish from the 
Great Lakes, and costly dainties from across 
the sea, while the offerings to Bacchus were 
neither poor in quality nor limited in amount. 
" Their conversation doubtless turned on the 
prospects of the season and the price of 
* castors'; on the hardships of forest and lake, 
interspersed not infrequently with spicy anec- 
dotes about their hardy factors and voyageurs, 
with now and then a sly and illuminating wink 
that recalled some beautiful Pocahontas met 
in their dreams or travels; for we have ample 
evidence that there was no Joseph among 
these puissant lords of the forests. Some 
made the hours slip rapidly away with Scotch 
story and Jacobite song, intermingled with 
those imperishable favorites 'La clair fontaine' 
and 'En roulant ma boule. 7 Others had been 
associated as clerks at the remote trading- 
posts, and the pleasures, dangers, adventures, 
and mishaps which they had shared together 

68 



W$t JSeaber Club 



in their wild-wood life they now recounted, 
and renewed the links of friendship and 
comraderie in convivial fraternity. 

"From this time on, my grandfather used 
to say, the assembly took on that character 
of extravagance and hilarious mirth which 
gave considerable celebrity to the Club. 1 The 
wine-heated traders would sit down upon the 
floor of the banquet hall, one with a poker, 
another with shovel or tongs, and arranging 
themselves in regular order as in the great 
North-canoes, they paddled vigorously on- 
ward, shouting at full voice the inspiring 
boating songs, or mounting astride wine kegs 
they would 'saute' or shoot the rapids from 
the table to the floor. When this stage was 
reached, all ceremony was relaxed, and clerks 
and voyageurs, servants and attendants, gath- 
ered from all parts of the building to watch 
the wild carousal which continued until dawn 
appeared and threw its disillusioning rays upon 
the paling candles and the red-faced revelers. 

"Yet it was not alone at Montreal that 
these barons of the fur trade held their boister- 
ous feasts. Either because he was younger 
when he first took part in them, or because 
they furnished him with his first relaxation 

1 The session began about 4 p.m., but the married 
men were permitted to retire at 9 p.m. The rest re- 
mained till 4 a.m., and on the occasion of Colonel 
Landman's visit, 120 bottles of wine were consumed 
(Colonel Landman's Recollections, etc). 



69 



arije jffflagfo* of tije aHilbernesa 

on his return from a winter of hardship at his 
distant and desolate post, my grandfather 
always spoke with the most enthusiasm of 
the festivities at Grand Portage and later at 
Fort William — to which place the post was 
moved after the American War. These were 
in reality only adjourned meetings of the 
Club, but far more suitably environed by the 
satyr-haunted forest. 

"To this rendezvous two or more of the 
partners from Montreal proceeded annually 
to meet in general council the heads of the 
various trading-posts of the interior who were 
known as the 'wintering partners.' The pur- 
pose of the gathering was to review the 
affairs of the Company during the preceding 
year, reward the meritorious, punish the 
inefficient and the guilty, and put into effect 
those plans for the future which had been 
agreed upon at the Club. On these occasions 
might be seen the change from the uncere- 
monious times of the old French traders in 
their forest-worn vestments to those of the 
present, where the aristocratic character of 
the old Briton or of the feudal Highlander 
shone forth magnificently. Every partner 
who had charge of an interior post had a 
score of retainers at his command, and was 
almost as important in the eyes of his de- 
pendents as in his own, and to him the visit 
to the grand conference at Fort William (or 
Grand Portage) was the climax of the year's 

70 



®fje peatoer Club 



work, and he repaired thither as to a meeting 
of Parliament. 

"The partners from Montreal however were 
the lords of the ascendant, and coming from 
the midst of a luxurious and ostentatious life 
they quite eclipsed their compeers from the 
woods, whose forms and faces had been 
battered and scarred by hard living and hard 
service. ' Indeed, the partners from below 
considered the whole dignity of the Company 
as represented in their own persons, and con- 
ducted themselves in suitable style. They 
traversed the rivers in great state, like sover- 
eigns making a progress. They were wrapped 
in rich furs, their huge canoes freighted with 
every convenience and luxury and manned 
by Canadian voyageurs as loyal and as obe- 
dient as their own ancestral clansmen. They 
carried with them cooks and bakers, together 
with delicacies of every kind, and an abun- 
dance of choice wine for the banquets. Happy 
were they if in addition they could meet with 
some distinguished stranger, above all some 
titled member of the British aristocracy, to 
accompany them on this stately occasion and 
grace their high solemnities.' 

"From the picturesque departure from 
La Chine to the ceremonious arrival at Fort 
William, the journey of the partners was a 
pageant of pride and power. La Chine is at 
the head of the rapids, nine miles above 
Montreal, and here in the spring of the year 

7i 



®fje jfWaatera at tfje Witlbenteas 

were assembled a brigade of ninety or a 
hundred canoes, each manned by eight men 
and a steersman. There was one pilot for 
each group of ten canoes, and thirty or 
forty guides accompanied the brigade to pre- 
vent waste of time on false leads. The scene 
is dramatic enough to stir the blood even to 
this day. ' Voyageurs and hunters are dressed 
in buckskin with the gayest of silk bands 
around hair and neck, while pompous partners 
parade back and forth in ruffles and gold 
braid, with brass-handled pistols and daggers 
at belt. Into each canoe goes its cargo, two- 
thirds merchandise and one-third provisions, 
with oilcloth, tarpaulin, towlines, and kettles. 
As fast as they are loaded the canoes are 
pushed off and circle about on the river, 
awaiting the signal of the head steersman. 
He, with full knowledge of his importance, 
stands with his steel-shod pole high overhead 
like the baton of a drum major. It drops; 
six hundred paddles dip the water as with one 
arm, and instantly there shoot out the long 
swift canoes of the partners, racing ahead to 
reach the rendezvous before the cargoes arrive. 
Freight packers ashore raise a shout that 
makes the river resound. The voyageurs 
strike up their song to which the paddles 
keep time. The deep-throated chorus dies 
away in an echo — the voyage is begun.' 

"Up the Ottawa River, through Lake 
Nipissing with its memories of Champlain, 
72 



tEfte peatier Club 



down the French River, across Georgian Bay 
and Lake Huron, around the fierce rapids of 
the Sault Ste. Marie and along the north 
shore of Lake Superior they drove their frail 
canoes through sunshine and storm, for the 
Nor '-Westers were very wolves for speed. 
The voyageurs were drenched almost con- 
stantly, yet they made no murmur, save on 
occasion a new recruit raised a feeble voice: 
'c'est la misere, c'est la misere mon Bour- 
geois,' a cry that was promptly smothered 
by the scorn and derision of his fellows, who 
called him a "pork eater" and other names 
equally effeminate and insulting. 

"The brigades arrived at Fort William 
preceded by the swift-traveling partners, who 
were welcomed by loud cheers ar;d salvos of 
artillery, a gratifying sound to expectant 
ears and proud hearts of the flinty faced 
Scotchmen. To each voyageur came a more 
satisfying reward in the shape of a regale, 
which meant a gallon of rum. Meanwhile 
the partners from the interior were arriving 
at frequent intervals, their canoes laden to 
the waterline with the packs of furs, worth 
$200.00 per pack. These men also had a 
regale and the entire population of partners, 
traders, clerks, voyageurs, and Indians 
swarmed in from east, west, south, and 
north to enter upon their annual carousal. 

"Fort William, the scene of this important 
convocation, was a considerable village on the 

73 



W&t jftlaater* of tije WHMxnts& 

western shore of Lake Superior, across the 
river from the present city of Port Arthur. 
Here in an immense wooden building was the 
great council hall, which was appropriately 
decorated with Indian arms, accouterments, 
and other trophies of the fur trade. 'The 
councils were held in great state, for every 
member felt to the utmost his responsibility, 
and every retainer and dependent looked up 
to the assembly with an awe-filled eye, as 
upon a House of Lords — which in truth it was. 
There was a vast deal of solemn deliberation 
and hard Scottish reasoning, with an occasional 
swell of pompous declamation.' 

"The grave and formal councils were held 
in alternation with huge feasts and revels. 
The council hall was converted into the ban- 
quet chamber, and the tables groaned under 
the weight of game of all kinds, and especially 
such hunters' delicacies as moose noses, 
buffalo tongues, and beaver tails, garnished 
and surrounded by various dainties from 
Montreal prepared and served by experienced 
cooks. The supply of wine was unstinted, 
for it was a hard-drinking period, a time of 
royal toasts, Bacchanalian songs, and brim- 
ming bumpers. 

"The chiefs wassailed in the hall and made 
the rafters shake with bursts of loyalty and 
old Scottish songs, chanted in voices cracked 
and sharpened by the northern blasts, while 
their merriment was echoed and prolonged 

74 



®fje peatar Club 



by a mongrel legion of retainers, voyageurs, 
half-breeds, Indian hunters, and vagabond 
hangers-on. These feasted sumptuously out- 
side upon the crumbs from the rich man's 
table, accompanied by a full chorus of old 
French ditties mingled with Indian yelps and 
howls. 

"Thus the environment for the savage 
pleasures of these fierce old forest vikings 
was far more suitable than the silent streets 
of Montreal patrolled by the alert step of the 
watch, who looked with awe, not unmixed 
with envy, upon the brilliant windows and 
vibrating walls of the Beaver Club. 

"At Montreal the Club represented at once 
the acme of social attainment and the pin- 
nacle of commercial success in Lower Canada, 
and its members dispensed their hospitality 
with baronial prodigality. Every distin- 
guished stranger visiting the city was hailed 
and feasted at their sumptuous board. From 
the foundation of the Club until 1809, when 
he organized the rival corporation known as 
the American Fur Company, John Jacob 
Astor was a welcome guest, and from the 
magnates of the Club he secured many of 
the traders and canoemen whom he sent to 
the sources of the Missouri and down the 
Columbia on that memorable expedition to 
the Pacific. The voyageurs were the most 
experienced canoemen and wilderness travelers 
in the world, and the Club took a high and 

75 



Wbt JWatfter* of tije WiiMmis& 

pardonable pride in the skill of its hardy 
henchmen. 

"Gabriel Franchere describes how a party 
of these voyageurs of which he was a member 
obtained considerable notoriety. They were 
engaged to join the Astor expedition, and 
with buoyant temperament and professional 
pride the woodsmen determined to astonish 
the people of the states with the sight of a 
Canadian boat and a Canadian crew. They 
accordingly fitted up a large bark canoe, such 
as was used in the fur trade, and amid the 
shouts of their fellows and the complacent 
approval of the Club they swung merrily into 
the St. Lawrence. Thence they paddled up 
the Richelieu River to Lake Champlain — the 
old route of the Iroquois war parties — and 
into Lake George. Portaging their canoe 
across to the Hudson, they plied their way 
cheerily southward. The banks re-echoed 
with their old French boating songs, and they 
passed the villages with whoop and halloo so 
as to make the honest Dutch farmers mistake 
them for a band of savages. In the quiet of 
a summer afternoon they swept in full song 
with regular flourish of paddle around New 
York to the wonder and admiration of the 
inhabitants. 1 But not all. There was at 
least one citizen to whom this exhibition, 

1 Mr. Astor was so gratified by the exhibition that 
he gave each of the voyageurs an eagle with which to 
drink his health (Ross's Oregon Settlers) . 

76 



GHje peatoer Club 



although greatly enjoyed, was by no means 
a novelty; for Washington Irving had sat 
at the great table of the Club on many 
an occasion. As a sensitive and impres- 
sionable youth he had gazed with won- 
dering and inexperienced eye upon the 
mighty Nor'-Westers — these princes para- 
mount at Montreal. He witnessed their 
lordly wassailing and listened with aston- 
ished ear to their tales of hardship and ad- 
venture. Here he received the impetus and 
developed the interest which subsequently 
culminated in those fascinating tales of the 
wilderness, Astoria, A Tour of the Prairies, 
and Captain Bonneville. Indeed so greatly 
was he interested that, upon invitation, he 
was sorely tempted to accompany one of the 
partners upon his romantic annual trip to 
Fort William. The invitation was declined, 
but his self-denial was ever after a source of 
bitter regret. 

"In 1804 Thomas Moore was the guest of 
the Club, and during an excursion up the 
Ottawa River he heard the songs of the 
voyageurs for the first time. His mind was 
so fired by the wild scenery and the haunt- 
ing refrain of the French chansons which 
he heard from the bark canoes at sunset, 
that he was inspired to write the beautiful 
'Canadian Boat Song,' which in music and 
in words has become almost the national air 
of Canada. 

77 



W$t jfflarterg of tije WLi\i)m\ts& 

Faintly as tolls the evening chime 
Our voices keep tune and our oars keep time. 
Soon as the woods on the shore look dim 
We'll sing at St. Ann's our parting hymn. 
Row, brothers, row — the stream runs fast, 
The rapids are near and the daylight is past. 

Ottawa's tide! this trembling moon 
Shall see us float over thy surges soon. 
Saint of this green isle hear our prayers. 
O! grant us cool heavens and favoring airs. 
Blow, breezes, blow! the stream runs fast, 
The rapids are near and the daylight is past. 

"Alexander Mackenzie, the first of the 
great Scotch explorers, was a member of the 
Club, and made it his headquarters on his 
return from the Arctic region and the dis- 
covery of the great river that bears his name. 
Again he returned to the Club after his 
successful journey across the steep passes of 
the Rocky Mountains to the waters of the 
western sea — the Northwest Passage by land. 
In this singular way was Verandrye's dream 
to be justified and fulfilled. 

"Hither in due time came the celebrated 
astronomer, geographer, and explorer, David 
Thompson — and also Simon Frazer — to rest 
from their journeys to the Pacific, while Peter 
Grant, the historiographer, with Malhiot, the 
French trader from Lac du Flambeau in 
Northern Wisconsin, found convivial fellow- 
ship at the Club. Later on Sir John Franklin, 
then a lieutenant, sat with many others in 

78 



®be Peaber Club 



the great hall, brimful of life, buoyant with 
hope and heedless of perils by forest or sea, 
and here he pledged the health of the Club 
while the piercing northern blasts were howl- 
ing over the brow of the neighboring Mount 
Royal, with some faint premonition perhaps 
of that still wilder blast over the icy slopes 
of the grim arctic shores where he was des- 
tined to yield up his noble spirit at the call 
of duty. 

"In Montreal and Quebec the partners 
frequented the best society and were received 
with a pleasure, due not alone to their rank 
and wealth, but to their engaging manners 
and interesting conversation. But it was not 
entirely in this social aspect that the members 
of the Club won distinction — they wielded a 
broader and deeper influence. If ih Canada 
they showed amiable and engaging qualities, 
among the wyageurs and Indians they were 
men of business — 'Crafty Wolves of the 
North' — hard and sinewy in muscle and con- 
science. They defended what they were 
pleased to call their rights with brutish ferocity. 
They were in business to secure furs as honestly 
as convenient, but at any rate to secure furs. 
The fur trade of Lower Canada had its official 
headquarters at the establishment of the 
combined firms of McTavish and the Fro- 
bishers, but the real commercial center of the 
colony was at the Beaver Club. Nor was this 
all. The official residence of the Governor- 

79 



€fje Jtlasters at tijc WAiibm\ts& 

General of Canada was at Quebec, but in 
his legislative council sat the sturdy Nor'- 
Wester, McGillivray, and it was frequently 
demonstrated that this strong spirit of the 
trading company kept a watchful eye and a 
stern hand on the affairs of state. Did the 
question of parochial schools arise — the Beaver 
Club was interested. Was it the conduct of 
the war with America, the method and form 
of defense, or the raising of funds — the pres- 
tige and experience of the Beaver Club was 
the decisive influence. In brief, no rule was 
laid down, no order went forth, either in the 
political or commercial world of Canada, that 
had not been considered and passed upon 
from the standpoint of the Club. 

"It was a position of extreme advantage, 
and it raised the Northwest Company to the 
zenith of its power. Its rivals had all been 
ruined or absorbed, save only the Honorable 
Hudson's Bay Company which, deeply in- 
trenched in its northern fastness, still held 
defiantly to its territorial rights and waged 
aggressive war. For twenty-five years these 
great competitors had fought foot to foot and 
point to point without advantage to either. 
Where one planted a fort the other followed 
within the year. They not only strove to 
reach the Indians first, but when one succeeded 
the other would give desperate battle for the 
furs already secured. Neither hesitated to 
rob the brigades of the rival company, nor 

80 



W&e peaber Cluti 



to murder the clerk in charge when a pre- 
ponderance of strength gave assurance of 
victory. 

" Great as financiers, marvelous as explorers, 
facile as traders, brave of spirit, and with the 
Company's motto, 'Fortitude in Distress,' 
ever before them, the Beaver Club now settled 
down to the last decade of the battle. The 
members gathered as usual, and even dis- 
played an unwonted boisterousness in their 
regular carousals, but in spite of all a different 
spirit was manifest, a somber tinge colored 
the happenings at the Club, and Destiny 
with flying scourge drove it swiftly on to 
tragedy and dissolution. The contest, which 
had been a commercial rivalry hitherto, bloody 
and desperate but more or less circumspect, 
now became an open and relentless warfare 
in which Indian lives were prodigally sacrificed 
and the white man strove with head, hand, and 
weapon against his fellow. The faces of the 
• Nor '-Westers ' were grim and set with deadly 
resolution — their eyes were steely and mostly 
the hand that held the tasseled cane clenched 
it about the middle. 

"As the thoughtful citizen of the present 
sees with dismay the ruin of the seal herds or 
bemoans the greedy and reckless waste of our 
forests, so the far-sighted colonist of those 
times might well lament the barbarous and 
insensate conduct of the fur trade. Whisky 
was poured out in a flood, the naked warriors 

81 



arijr Rasters of tfje JKHittienteatf 

of forest and plain were totally demoralized, 
while the struggle for peltries was carried on 
with a fury and a deadliness that caused it to 
appear less like a licensed commerce than a 
wholesale brigandage. If the partners in 
Montreal were heedful of public opinion, 
their associates in the wilderness were by no 
means so scrupulous. Their greed felt no 
limitations; justly sure of applause if they 
succeeded, they feared rebuke only in case 
they failed. Such were the conditions be- 
tween the rival companies and such was the 
condition of the fur trade when a new element 
entered the contest. 

"In 1805, Lord Selkirk became interested 
in the country around Red River and Lake 
Winnipeg, and on his trip to Prince Edward 
Island with a body of colonists he came to 
Montreal where he was entertained by the 
Club. Here he met my grandfather whose 
post at Fort des Prairies, near Lake Manitoba, 
enabled him to give his Lordship information 
that he much desired. Again in 1809 he 
returned with the same intense interest in 
the upper country. My grandfather was in 
Montreal that winter, and naturally spent 
most of his time at the Club. Lord Selkirk 
met him again and again and questioned him 
so keenly and to such length that my grand- 
father's suspicions were aroused. Lord Sel- 
kirk, he reflected, could have no object in 
undertaking the fur trade, for he was already 

82 



W$t peatoer Club 



immensely wealthy, and, if he wished, could 
easily buy a partnership in the Company, and 
since neither my grandfather nor his fellows 
could form any conception of disinterested- 
ness in one of the British nobility, the motive 
remained undiscovered. Lord Selkirk re- 
turned to Great Britain to develop his scheme, 
which was nothing less than the colonization 
of the Red River valley. He already had a 
large interest in the Hudson's Bay Company, 
and as the shares had depreciated from £250 
to £50 per share, owing to the warfare with 
the Northwest Company, he had no difficulty 
in so increasing his holdings that with his 
friends he controlled a majority of the stock. 
Thereupon he forced the Company to cede 
to him a tract of 110,000 square miles of land 
near the junction of the Assiniboine and Red 
Rivers, and by 181 1 he was able to start his 
first colony of seventy people, all from Ireland 
and the Highlands of Scotland. The poor 
agitated emigrants sailed in three ships for 
Hudson Bay. At Fort York they wintered 
and then started in the spring for the colony, 
which was destined to become the present 
city of Winnipeg. 

"The Beaver Club was bitterly opposed to 
this movement from its inception, first, be- 
cause it was inaugurated through the hostile 
Hudson's Bay Company and might therefore 
greatly further those interests in the Red 
River country; secondly, because it flatly 

83 



Wf\t Jttaster* of tije Wt&iMxntXX 

contravened their claim to proprietorship of 
the Northwest, and finally, because settlement 
and agriculture were incompatible with a con- 
tinuance of the fur trade. * When the settler 
comes the mink and the beaver disappear. 
Where the ploughshare turns its furrow the 
antelope flies warily to distant coverts.' 

"So the Beaver Club watched with lower- 
ing brows and deep-throated curses the ad- 
vance of the emigrants, but beyond refusing 
on various pretexts to sell food to the colo- 
nists, they refrained from interference. They 
doubtless hoped the frightful hardships which 
the settlers experienced would drive them to 
retreat or destruction. A second detachment 
of emigrants arrived in 1813, and a third in 
the following year. The Beaver Club was 
seething with suppressed indignation, and 
now awaited only a fitting occasion to declare 
war. Henceforth the drama moves steadily 
and inevitably to the catastrophe. 

"For two years the agents of the Club had 
been warning Lord Selkirk by post that the 
attitude of the Indians was becoming more 
and more hostile toward the colonists, and 
doubt was expressed whether they — the North- 
west Company — could hold them much longer 
in check. Although Selkirk fully understood 
the sinister meaning of this hint and appre- 
ciated clearly the real source of the danger to 
his colony, yet his only reply was to ship arms 
and munitions of war to the settlement. 

84 



®fje Peatoer Club 



"It now happened that the scarcity of 
provisions and the constantly increasing 
numbers of the colonists brought the menace 
of famine, so the governor of the colony pro- 
hibited the export of any provisions until the 
settlers had been given opportunity to pur- 
chase their winter's supply. The resident 
factor of the Northwest Company received 
instructions from Montreal to disregard this 
order and to ship out the supplies as fast as 
possible. The governor, realizing that his 
colony would probably perish, sent a body of 
men to take possession of the provisions that 
remained in the post of the Northwest Com- 
pany. Although this action was far less 
violent and highhanded and far more justi- 
fiable under the circumstances than^ hundreds 
which had been executed by and in behalf of 
the Company, yet it was promptly utilized 
as a pretext for the long-desired war. Instruc- 
tions were forwarded to the annual convoca- 
tion at Fort William to begin the contest at 
once and Colonia delenda est became the 
watchword of the Club. 

"Duncan Cameron, a Scotchman and a 
royalist refugee from the revolting American 
colonies, was given charge of the campaign. 
He was allowed and expected to employ all 
the influence and unlimited resources of the 
powerful Company against those poor fellow- 
countrymen who were trying to eke out in 
the new world a livelihood which, miserable 



85 



W&t JWastera of tfje W&ilbtmt&x 

as it was, obdurate Nature and oppressive 
landlords refused them in the old. It is 
probable that none of the partners was more 
willing to undertake this mission nor better 
endowed to execute it. 

"In July, 1814, Cameron departed for his 
post, which was located about a mile from the 
new settlement. By means of the common 
nationality and his insinuating and persuasive 
manner, Cameron soon convinced about three- 
fourths of the colonists that he was devoted 
heart and soul to their interests. He also 
utilized the timely appearance of Ober's 
comet to terrorize the more ignorant and 
superstitious. Their governor had been ar- 
rested and sent to Montreal to stand trial 
for the seizure of the provisions, and Cameron 
took advantage of his absence to induce the 
settlers to leave Red River and locate under 
the Company's protection at some point along 
the St. Lawrence that he should select. He 
removed all the arms, including the cannon, 
from the settlement to his own good fort, and 
then the settlers who had been unwilling to 
follow him were intimidated by his men until 
in despair they consented to abandon their 
homes. These were put into boats and sent 
back down the river toward Hudson Bay, 
while Cameron with the larger body started 
for Fort William to attend the annual con- 
vocation. He left some men to burn the 
settlement, and in June, 181 5, eleven months 

86 



Wht peafcer Clufr 



from his arrival, smoking ruins marked the 
site of the promising colony. Cameron was 
warmly felicitated and handsomely rewarded 
at Fort William for his achievement, and the 
news was sent in all haste to Montreal. 

"The Club was at the height of its jubila- 
tion over the success of this unscrupulous 
performance when an express canoe came 
swiftly down the St. Lawrence bearing the 
most vexatious tidings. The band of colonists 
traveling to Hudson Bay had found a leader 
in one Colin Robertson, and having been 
joined by a new draft from over sea had 
returned to the settlement, resumed the lands, 
retaken by force their arms and agricultural 
implements from the post of the Northwest 
Company, and were harvesting the crops which 
Cameron's men had neglected to destroy. 

" Meanwhile Robertson, though deprived 
of the water route by the vigilance of the 
Nor'- Westers, had found means to send over- 
land to Lord Selkirk a full description of the 
disaster that had overtaken his colony, as 
well as the manner and agency by which it 
was accomplished. This message was carried 
through bands of hostile Indians and through 
the well-guarded lines of the Northwest Com- 
pany by a trapper named Lajimmoniere, whose 
wonderful winter trip of more than one thou- 
sand miles is in itself an interesting story. 

"Lord Selkirk now applied to the Governor- 
General of Canada for protection for his 

87 



Wje iilaatertf of tfje ©Ktlbernea* 

colony, and asked for a military guard. 
When the matter came up in the Council it 
was strongly opposed by McGillivray, who 
was the political and diplomatic head of the 
war, just as Sir Alexander Mackenzie was the 
executive officer in the field. McGillivray 
being the Governor's influential adviser and 
the dominant head of the Northwest Company, 
he easily posed as a high authority on the fur 
country, and, attributing the destruction of 
the colony to an Indian attack, he urged that 
it was a sporadic affair and not at all likely 
to occur again. He dwelt especially on the 
difficulty and danger of transporting troops 
so far from their base of supplies and into a 
country already on the verge of famine. He 
stated that it would be a great and entirely 
unnecessary expense to Canada, and finished 
by declaring that the presence of troops in 
that country would so inflame the already 
exasperated savages that a general uprising 
would ensue and all the whites be massacred. 
His arguments were effective, and the troops 
were not sent. Lord Selkirk, who had spent 
the winter in Montreal, was defeated but not 
discouraged. 

"Help came in a very opportune and unex- 
pected manner. At the conclusion of the war 
in 1812 three British regiments had been left 
in Canada, namely, the Meuron, the Watt- 
ville, and Glengarry, the two first being from 
Switzerland. They were now about to dis- 
88 



Wbt Peatoer Clufc 



band, and as many of the soldiers did not 
wish to return to Europe, Lord Selkirk in- 
duced them to accept homesteads in the Red 
River colony. Having been armed and 
equipped, they started in June for Red 
River, led by Lord Selkirk in person. They 
traveled as rapidly as possible, hoping to 
anticipate a second blow which rumor per- 
sistently declared was about to fall upon the 
colony. Hurrying across Lake Huron they 
ascended St. Mary's River, only to be met at 
Sault Ste. Marie by two canoes bearing tidings 
of the massacre of Seven Oaks and the total 
destruction of the colony for a second time. 
Selkirk pushed on and found at Fort William 
the unhappy confirmation of the story. He 
learned that the settlement had been put in 
charge of the Hudson's Bay Company with 
Governor Semple in command, as it was 
understood that a second attack was impend- 
ing. On June 19, 1816, troops of half-breeds 
(bois brules) which the Northwest Company 
had collected for the purpose appeared in 
sight and advanced upon the settlement. 
They were disguised as Indians and Governor 
Semple, with about twenty-five men, left 
Fort Douglas and went forward to discover 
their intentions. A little over half a mile from 
the fort, at a place called Seven Oaks, the 
parties met. After a few words between the 
leaders, the irresponsible half-breeds opened 
fire. With deadly aim and savage zeal they 

89 



W&t JWatfter* of tfte WLiMxntXX 

continued to shoot until Governor Semple 
and twenty of his men were killed. There 
had been no resistance, and when Fort Douglas 
was threatened it too was given up. All 
the colonists were dispersed, their buildings 
burned, and the Nor '-Westers remained in 
complete control. 

"The acts of Lord Selkirk in securing 
justice for this outrage, his arrival at the 
colony with his men, the collection of the 
fugitives and the rejuvenation of the settle- 
ment under his inspiring leadership are no 
part of this story. Suffice it to say that the 
colony thenceforward suffered only from 
natural obstacles which were quietly met and 
courageously overcome, and the little settle- 
ment steadily grew and prospered until it 
became the principal city of Central Canada. 

"The news of the brutal massacre at Seven 
Oaks was received with mixed feelings at the 
Beaver Club. Some blusteringly referred to 
it as the glorious news from the North, but the 
more thoughtful were greatly agitated. They 
foresaw the possible consequences with dread 
and apprehension. The immediate effect of 
the tragedy was the startled recoil of the 
principals. Later it was discovered that both 
the Club and the Northwest Company had 
received mortal wounds. The Nor '-Westers 
promptly disclaimed responsibility for the 
attack, and as a mark of good faith to forestall 
a recurrence, they entered upon a truce with 
90 




g * 



W$t peaber Club 



their great rival. This continued until 1821, 
when a permanent union was effected. The 
Hudson's Bay Company remained supreme, 
and into its vitiated blood was poured the 
exuberant energy and somewhat overbold 
hardihood of the bellicose Nor'- Westers. 

"The Club meanwhile lost its unity of spirit. 
It became a place of dissension, where the 
members wrangled over the Seven Oaks affair, 
just as the legal questions during the same 
period were tediously contested in the courts. 
The vigor and strength of the organization had 
departed, and bitter enmities developed. To 
be sure the Club lingered along in a weak, 
futile, and declining way for two or three 
years after the merging of the companies, but 
the divergence of trade from Montreal to the 
ports of Hudson Bay was fatal to its exist- 
ence, and the Club finally came to its official 
end in 1824. 

"Upon its dissolution the Earl of Dal- 
housie, then governor of Canada, presented 
to my grandfather this silver snuffbox which 
he used constantly up to the time of his death. 
It then disappeared. For many years old 
cups of rude design and pieces of solid plate 
bearing the mark of the Club appeared at 
intervals in the auction rooms as mute wit- 
nesses of the roistering days of old, but no 
trace of the snuffbox has ever been found 
until today. You can see, therefore, why I 
value it so highly. It is my only souvenir of 

91 



®be iWaater* of tfje aSBiibernetf* 

my grandfather and of the mighty Company 
in whose acts and counsels he took so notable 
a part. 

"It is doubtless true the Company debased 
and corrupted the Indians, but it was the 
means, though an obstinate and unwilling 
means, whereby the interior of the immense 
Northwest was opened up and explored from 
the inland seas to the Arctic Ocean and west 
to the Pacific. Impelled by a greed for furs 
as rapacious as the Spanish lust for gold, the 
magnates of the fur trade not only established 
their posts where cities now stand, but they 
traced innumerable highways and developed 
the possibility of traveling with ease and safety 
over prairie, river, and lake, and through 
unmeasured tracts of tangled wilderness. It 
was a period of great enterprise, of thrilling 
adventure, and almost inevitably of flagrant 
crimes. 

"Of the old Northwest Company only the 
spirit remains smouldering in the heart of its 
former rival. The fur-bearing animals are 
nearly extinct. It is the unwelcome end so 
clearly foreseen by the traders. The rolling 
prairies and forested wilds over which the 
trade was conducted have been converted 
into extensive farmsteads which support a 
spreading civilization. The feudal grandeur 
of Fort William is a thing of the past; the 
Beaver Club which for forty years dominated 
the social, commercial, and political life of 

92 



TOje Peatoer Club 



Canada has closed its doors; its "council 
chamber is silent and desolate; the banquet 
hall no longer echoes to the old-world ditty, 
for the stalwart masters of the wilderness 
have passed away." 



93 



& ©ream of (Empire 

THE ADVENTURES OF TONTY 
IN OLD LOUISIANA 



'We were dreamers, dreaming greatly, in the man- 
stifled town; 

We yearned beyond the sky-line where the strange 
roads go down. 

Came the whisper, came the vision, came the power 
with the need, 

Till the soul that is not man's soul was lent us to lead. 



Follow after — follow after! we have watered the root, 
And the bud has come to blossom that ripens for fruit! 
Follow after — we are waiting, by the trails that we 

lost, 
For the sounds of many footsteps, for the tread of a 

host. 
Follow after — follow after — for the harvest is sown; 
By tie bones about the wayside ye shall come to your 

own." 

—Kipling, "The Song of the Dead." 



13 ©ream of Cmptre* 

%\t SUtoentttrea of ^ontp in ©Va 
Louisiana 

The memory of the French dominion in 
America arouses but feeble response in the 
modern mind, and yet, when we invoke its 
"gallant shades, they rise upon us from in- 
numerable graves beside the water highways 
of the past. Innumerable camp-fires lift their 
spectral flames, and against the sombre back- 
ground of the forest" we see in the flickering 
light those stern-faced men whose courage won 
a continent. 

Canada at that time was a colony in which 
feudalism and paternalism were the paramount 
principles of government, and under the rule 
of Louis XIV, priest and noble, warrior and 
civilian, knight and squire wove intricate 
figures of romance in the great tapestry of the 
New World. Whether impelled by love of 
adventure, the lure of ambition, the needs of 
commerce, or religious fervor, they gave free 
rein to their enthusiasm and traversed the 
wilderness in every direction, while their fleets 
of canoes floated on the broad bosoms of the 
Great Lakes or swept along the rivers with 
paddle and song. 

No danger daunted nor obstacle deterred 
the ardent nobility of New France, as in their 

*A paper read before the Society, September 14, 191 z. 
97 



Cijc plasters of tfje Wlilbtvmxx 

frayed and faded uniforms they pushed boldly 
into the interior, making treaties, building 
forts, surveying, measuring, and calculating 
with militant intelligence and prophetic eyes. 
Nor did commerce hesitate to follow or indeed 
to accompany the footsteps of the pathfinders. 
No tribe was so remote as to escape the vigi- 
lance of the trader with his crew of rollicking 
and irresponsible voyageurs, clad in their gaudy 
caps and coats of fringed buckskin. 

But while swarthy Frenchmen with sword 
at heel ranged from the St. Lawrence to the 
Great Lakes and from the Ohio to the Missis- 
sippi, the English colonists with rifle and axe 
crept relentlessly up the river valleys from the 
bays and gulfs of the Atlantic to the distant 
Alleghanies. Spreading by contiguity and oc- 
cupying the region overrun is deadly in its cer- 
tainty, but extremely slow. Long before the 
English front had reached the foothills the peril 
was recognized. The alert French leaders fore- 
saw that the mountain barrier would be only 
temporary, that soon other buckskin wanderers 
would drift insistently westward, until finally, 
in ceaseless caravans, the colonists would sweep 
through Cumberland Gap and overwhelm the 
great valley. 

Then it was that Frontenac, La Salle, Tonty, 
and later Iberville planned to restrict the 
English influence and stop the forward move- 
ment by exploring the Mississippi and by 
planting armed trading-posts along the un- 

98 



9 ©ream of €mpire 



known rivers of the interior. Dominion over 
the native tribes and the control of the fur 
trade went hand in hand, and both were 
necessary adjuncts to success in a game of 
state-craft that was both personal and politi- 
cal. Hampered by governmental restraints 
and only occasionally supported by the lan- 
guid hand of an apathetic ministry, Frontenac 
and La Salle inaugurated the long campaign. 

La Salle had already explored the Ohio and 
Joliet and Marquette had discovered the 
Mississippi, when in 1678 La Salle returned 
from France with a royal commission to 
examine the Great River, open it up to French 
Commerce, and secure it to France by actual 
possession. With him, from the Old World, 
came Henry de Tonty — the man with the iron 
hand. 

To readers of Parkman, Mason, and Legler, 
Tonty needs no introduction. He was born 
in 1650, the son of an Italian refugee, and in 
due time entered the French army, which in 
those days furnished the most desirable outlet 
for active and ambitious spirits. He saw much 
service, and in the battle of Lebisso, in Sicily, 
lost a hand which was replaced by an iron 
hook. After various alternations of fortune 
he was referred to La Salle and became his 
most loyal friend, his most unselfish and 
efficient aid. 

Landing at Quebec, La Salle and Tonty paid 
their respects to the Governor and departed 

99 



Wfje jfMastera of tfje VHtlbeme^ 

for Fort Frontenac, now Kingston, which was 
to be the base for their subsequent movements. 
Their first care was to build a ship to be used 
for trading purposes on the Great Lakes west 
of Niagara Falls. Cayuga Creek, six miles 
above the cataract, was selected as the most 
convenient site for the work, and at this point 
trees were felled, a clearing made, a warehouse 
erected, and the "Griffon" begun. Except 
the timbers, everything for the construction 
and equipment of the ship had to be brought 
up the St. Lawrence from Quebec, and the 
building itself had to be done by mutinous 
workmen who lived in a wilderness surrounded 
by hostile Indians. Late in the fall the pro- 
ject was begun, and with but slight hints of 
the serious difficulties Tonty states tersely 
that " the vessel was completed in the Spring 
of 1679." Self-denying as usual, Tonty did 
not at first sail on the "Griffon," but went 
ahead by canoe to pick up some men at the 
straits (Detroit). Here on the 10th of August 
his signal columns of smoke were seen from 
the ship as she ploughed the waters on the 
first trading voyage to the Indians of the 
upper lakes. 

The expedition stopped for a time at Mack- 
inac, while Tonty made a side trip to the 
" Soo " and then all went to Green Bay. From 
this place the vessel was sent back laden with 
furs, while Tonty and La Salle pushed up Lake 
Michigan and reached the Illinois by way of 



9 ©ream of (Empire 



the St. Joseph and Kankakee Rivers. At 
the foot of Peoria Lake they built Fort 
Crevecoeur and made a treaty with the fickle 
savages who dwelt near by. At the same time 
they began to construct another vessel for 
use upon the rivers, and detached Father 
Hennepin, the Recollect, on a voyage of 
exploration to the headwaters of the Missis- 
sippi. 

Meanwhile nothing was heard from the 
"Griffon," so La Salle started in March on 
the 1,500-mile trip overland to Fort Frontenac 
in search of news. At Cayuga Creek, and 
again on arrival at the fort, his great fear was 
confirmed. The " Griffon " was lost with 
cargo and crew, but how and where was never 
learned. Shortly afterward two voyageurs 
came in from Tonty with more ill tidings. 
Tonty wrote that soon after La Salle's depar- 
ture he had started north along the shores of 
the Illinois River in search of a site for a post 
and during his absence the men at Fort 
Crevecoeur had mutinied, destroyed the fort, 
plundered the magazine, and fled to the woods 
with their spoil. By this misfortune Tonty 
was deprived of all his food and ammunition 
and compelled to seek refuge among the 
Illinois Indians. From this haven he was 
driven by the aggressions of the insatiable 
Iroquois, and with a few faithful followers 
he made a winter retreat of terrible hardship 
to Green Bay. 



&ljc plasters of tije WHilbttntSti 

La Salle, meanwhile, had hurried back to 
the Illinois country to relieve Tonty, and not 
finding him there he followed him to Mackinac 
in the greatest anxiety, for both La Salle and 
Tonty had been convinced by malicious reports 
that the other had been slain. 

The extent of the disaster was only appre- 
ciated clearly when the friends met at Mack- 
inac three months later. To Tonty personally 
the consequences were not serious, but all 
of La Salle's fortune was lost with the " Grif- 
fon." Nevertheless, La Salle's ambition was 
only momentarily depressed. During the 
winter his spirits rose to even greater heights, 
and finding in Tonty a comrade serene and 
hopeful in the face of all they began their 
preparations to explore the Mississippi. 

The summer was gone before the expedition 
could start. This added to their perils, for 
in the fall Lake Michigan is subject to severe 
and sudden storms. Rough experience they 
had, but by keeping close to the shore they 
reached the Chicago River on December 21 

(1681) without serious mishap. Paddling up 
the south branch they dragged the canoes and 
baggage on sledges across the frozen waters 
of Mud Lake and the adjacent marshes which 
made up the Chicago portage, and continued 
on sledges over the thick ribbed ice of the 
Desplaines. Upon reaching the Illinois River, 
they launched their canoes, and by February 6 

(1682) the Mississippi lay before them. 



& ©ream of Cmptre 



Tonty, who saw the river for the first time, 
said it was grand, large, and deep, comparable 
to the mighty St. Lawrence. The real object 
of the adventure was now in sight. Boldly 
they pressed on. Day after day and mile 
after mile the little band drove steadily south- 
ward. With senses keenly alert to the 
mysterious perils of the hostile shores and 
treacherous waters, they felt their way deeper 
and deeper into the unknown. They passed 
the mouth of the Missouri — a roaring torrent 
of muddy water which hurled into the Missis- 
sippi great trees and islands wrenched from 
the inconstant shores. Hills rose from the 
water with gentle slope, or cliffs of forbidding 
height towered over the river only to descend 
to reedy banks or to meadows black with 
buffalo. Then the Mississippi broadened 
into a long lake whose marshy edges were 
curtained by the waving stems of cane. 

At last, after three adventurous months, 
they reached the upper end of the Delta. 
Here they separated — La Salle, Tonty, and 
D'Autray took each a different arm of the 
river and swept rapidly down the current. 

In three days their little gondolas of bark 
were tossing on the blue waters of the Gulf. 
They met as agreed, and went into camp on 
the low wind-swept marsh that divides the 
river channels. The latitude of the mouth 
was carefully taken, but unhappily they had 
no instruments with which to determine the 
103 



HL\)t JHa£ter£ of tfje W&ilbtvmte 

longitude. It was a fatal omission, for on 
it La Salle was to risk his life — and lose. On 
the next day a cross was erected with appro- 
priate ceremonies and possession taken in the 
name of the King (April 9, 1682). 

The first part of the plan was satisfactorily 
accomplished. Next their provisions failed, 
and La Salle became desperately ill, so Tonty 
started alone for Quebec to notify Frontenac 
of their success. Waylaid by hostile Indians 
and narrowly escaping the stake, he never- 
theless completed his mission and returned 
to Mackinac. Three months later La Salle 
joined him at the Island and together they 
returned to construct upon "Starved Rock" 
the historic Fort St. Louis of the Illinois. 

This rock was a sandstone cliff 150 feet 
high and accessible only from one side. It 
was first called Le Rocker, but after the 
Indian tragedy of later years it was known 
everywhere as "Starved Rock." On its acre 
broad top the fort was built and the single 
approach was buttressed and barricaded 
until it was impregnable. 

It was now necessary to enlist the interest 
of the Redmen, and from his lofty fortress 
Tonty went east and west, north and south 
in search of allies, until in the great valley 
beneath the rock were assembled the Miamis, 
Shawnees, Piankishaus, and Illini. Their 
tepees dotted the plain and their canoes 
swarmed upon the river: twenty thousand 

104 



3 ©ream of €mptre 



Indians mutually suspicious and antagonistic, 
but all leagued to France. 

The control of the fur trade and the su- 
premacy of the Mississippi seemed certain. 
To complete the long, thin line of fortified 
posts which was to connect the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence with the Gulf of Mexico, a colony 
must be placed at the mouth of the River, 
and this could be done only with the aid of 
the King. To secure this Tonty was left in 
command of the fort while La Salle made the 
wearisome journey to France. So they parted 
— as it happened, forever. 

How La Salle returned with his fleet, missed 
the mouth of the river, and perished on the 
plains of Texas has been told and retold. 

But deep in the wilderness came the news 
from Quebec that La Salle's expedition had 
landed on the Gulf, and with twenty men 
Tonty made the second descent of the river 
to meet this friend. He sent boats east and 
west of the Delta for ninety miles, but he 
found no sign along the lonely Gulf, and 
when he gave up the quest he left a letter for 
La Salle with a chief of the Mougoulaches, 
who lived on the Mississippi about a hundred 
miles above the present city of New Orleans. 

Upon his return to the Rock he received 
orders from Governor Denonville, Frontenac's 
successor, to return to Canada and join his 
cousin Duluth in an expedition against the 
Iroquois which the Governor was preparing. 

105 



GTfie Jteter* of tije aaitlbernestf 

After a year of this warfare he again sought 
his rock and learned that Joutel with two 
survivors of the La Salle expedition had 
arrived with the report that La Salle was well 
and on his way north by way of the Red 
River. This was a wilful deception, and while 
Tonty was preparing joyfully to receive his 
chief, the melancholy truth came out that 
La Salle had been assassinated. Again the 
tireless Tonty moved down the Mississippi 
and up the Red River to succor the sur- 
vivors and punish the murderers. The latter 
especially he desired most ardently. Into 
village after village of hostile savages he 
marched almost alone. Boldly he demanded 
the murderers of La Salle, but all was vain. 
Traces of his countrymen indeed he found, 
but only such as convinced him that the 
expedition was totally lost. He continued 
to advance, hoping against hope, until he 
came within three days' march of the scene 
of the assassination. Here his men mutinied 
and he was compelled to return to Fort St. 
Louis. 

Although devoid of money and influence, 
Tonty henceforth occupied the Rock and 
strove to arouse the court to a new effort. 
But the government which had received a 
gleam of light from the enthusiastic and force- 
ful presentation of La Salle now felt that it 
had been over-persuaded by a visionary whose 
failure had brought suspicion upon the ven- 

106 



& ©ream of Cmptre 



ture and distrust upon the adventurers. This 
feeling, which was encouraged by the many 
enemies of La Salle, fell with peculiar force 
upon Tonty, whose remoteness and isolation 
made counter-argument impossible. Through 
observation and sympathy he had become 
thoroughly imbued with the high ambitions 
of his chief, and he saw with equal clearness 
the necessity and the feasibility of their ful- 
filment. Ten years had elapsed since Tonty 
came to America full of hope and confidence — ■ 
the able colleague of an inspiring leader. 
What was the result? La Salle was dead; 
the "Griffon" lost; Fort Frontenac in the 
hands of his French competitors, and Tonty 
remained in charge of the one post in the valley 
that flew the flag of France. In spite of these 
disasters much had been accomplished. The 
Mississippi had been followed to the sea and 
the way was open for commercial exploita- 
tion, military possession, and colonization. 
To these ends Tonty devoted himself. 

The story so briefly reviewed depends thus 
far on various well-known "relations," as well 
as Tonty's own reports. Henceforth the nar- 
rative becomes more circumstantial, but the 
sources are few and scanty, the information 
imperfect, and not hitherto emphasized in 
respect to Tonty. The incidents themselves, 
so trivial apparently, are the premonitory 
drops which are to culminate in the storm of 
the Seven Years' War, when Teuton and 

107 



m)t Jflastcrs of tije 2ffliiitiernes# 

Roman, impelled by the hereditary animos- 
ity of centuries, are to meet in a desperate 
struggle wherein the extensive patrimony of 
the Redmen is to be the reward of the victor. 

France, with her power of initiative un- 
hampered by a hostile parliament, sat in 
trouble and uncertainty. She was not un- 
mindful of her opportunity, but she doubted its 
value. Moreover her attention was strongly 
distracted; William III of England was 
incessantly busy. By diplomacy or by in- 
trigue, by secret or open war, he harried the 
French in Europe and threatened their colonial 
possessions. To oppose him required a vigi- 
lant and unflagging energy. Besides this 
enemy beyond his borders, Louis XIV was 
absorbed at home in two personal ambitions, 
apparently unrelated, but really convergent in 
tendency and termination. In order to satisfy 
his mistress De Maintenon, and to secure re- 
ligious uniformity throughout his dominions, 
he adopted a course of persecution toward the 
Huguenots which drove hundreds of thousands 
of the most industrious and productive of his 
subjects out of France, not to the colonies 
as a higher politics and even self-interest 
demanded, but into the arms of the enemy. 

At the same time Louis was draining the 
kingdom to the last sou for the construction 
of his royal residence at Versailles. 

In America, where life was less complex, 
the compelling importance of the local issue 
1 08 



3 ©ream of Cmptre 



was clearly foreseen, and Frontenac, La Salle, 
Tonty, Iberville, and Bienville set out gallantly 
to perfect the French title and assure its de- 
fense. Of these Bienville alone lived to see the 
failure of their plans. In the long contest, 
characterized by singleness of aim and self- 
sacrifice, the way was marked by many trage- 
dies among his relatives and friends. Yet in 
chagrin and humiliation he saw the results 
of their consecrated efforts slip from the in- 
different hands of France. It brought him 
broken-hearted to the grave. The death of 
his brother, Iberville, the loss of his influence 
at court, and the industry of his enemies may 
have given him some intimation of the futility 
of his struggle with fate, but it made no change 
in his resolution. So throughout the life of 
Tonty one sees an inexorable purpose, but also 
one has only to listen to hear the flutter of 
those dim, shadowy wings that so frequently 
intervene between man and accomplishment. 
The fruits of these activities were not lost, 
though the lifelong devotion of the leaders 
availed them nothing in a personal sense. 
Nor did the efforts of inconstant France, nor 
yet of victorious Britain, disturb in the least 
that relentless onward movement which had 
its origin in the European wars and its cul- 
mination in the Great Republic. 

It is said that all men are divided in two 
classes: the Olympians who rule events and 
receive as a natural tribute all the gifts of 

109 



QTfje illafiters! of tfje aKBtlbenutf* 

nature, and the Titans who with courage and 
manly fortitude forever strive against the 
decrees of the gods; more than many does 
Tonty seem to belong to the latter class. The 
Imp of the Perverse attended his steps and 
misfortune met him at every turn, from the 
loss of his hand at Lebisso to his melancholy 
death at Mobile, and yet no man more strongly 
enlists our affectionate admiration. 

Possibly for this reason there is an appealing 
significance in the career of Tonty — an inti- 
mately personal relation which is absent from 
the gloomy La Salle and the brilliant Iberville. 
Probably it is due to this quality that so many 
writers have chosen Tonty as the theme of 
historical description or of romantic narration. 
Unhappily there exists but meager evidence 
of his many interests, and yet wherever he 
appears, be it on the brink of success or in the 
midst of actual or impending disaster, we see 
his sturdy figure serene, resourceful, and un- 
dismayed. Every incident in his life is par- 
ticularly interesting and appealing to the 
residents of Illinois, but we like best and quite 
naturally to associate him with the lonely 
sandstone pinnacle where for twenty years he 
made his home: a home, indeed, but not the 
abode of peace. The savage foes around the 
fort he could meet with diplomacy or with open 
and successful war, but craft alone could avail 
against the enemies he had inherited from 
La Salle. With stealth and greedy cunning 

no 



3 ©ream of Cmptre 



they enmeshed him in treachery within the 
walls, and conspired to destroy him in Quebec 
and Montreal. So year followed year, and 
from his rocky fortress he maintained his 
command over the Mississippi River valley, 
but his eyes were turned ever longingly and 
anxiously to France. 

Throughout this expansive region, where 
the murmuring winds, the flowing waters, 
and the roving Redmen held fickle dominion, 
he hoped to see colonies of his industrious 
countrymen, while ever before him was the 
noble vision of the Great River which through 
hundreds of miles of darkling forest glides 
in stately curves to the southern Gulf. Like 
Ulysses on Calypso's isle, Tonty's heart was 
destined to be wrung with ten years of 
longing, and yet the period was riot wasted 
in lamentations, but rather it was spent in 
manly, albeit fruitless, petitions to the King 
for permission to undertake, and the support 
that was necessary to, the plan he burned to 
execute. 

Then Frontenac, who had been recalled to 
the governorship of New France, suddenly 
died, and with the loss of this sole remaining 
friend who could influentially approach the 
court, hope fled. Yet the time was now at 
hand, and after ten years of pleading, after 
ten years of lonely vigil, the court was again 
aroused. It was ordained that the plans of 
La Salle should be taken up, the mouth of the 



Wlyt plaster* of tfjc lUtlberne^ 

river be definitely located by way of the Gulf, 
and a settlement planted thereon. All this 
was arranged, but it was to be undertaken, 
not by Tonty, the natural heir who craved 
the command, but by LeMoyne d'Iberville, 
whose dashing exploits in Hudson Bay had 
won the favor of the king. 

By the treaty of Ryswick, which had just 
been concluded, the English posts on the 
northern bay were safe from attack and Iber- 
ville turned his restless mind and conquering 
hand to the problems in the South. 

There was a bright possibility that here also 
he could meet and baffle the English foe, 
although open warfare was forbidden. His 
expedition left France on September 5, 1698, 
and on the 2d of the following March, Iberville 
entered the mouth of the Mississippi. He had 
with him the reports of all previous explorers, 
including that confusing narrative which had 
been attributed to Tonty, and since it was 
necessary definitely to identify the waters he 
explored, he made a long journey up stream 
in search of the fabulous "fork" which had 
been so positively described by Hennepin 
as a characteristic of the lower river. 

Failing to find this landmark, but convinced 
that the river must be the Mississippi, he 
returned to the fleet. During the backward 
journey he learned of the existence of that 
famous letter to La Salle which Tonty had left 
with the Indians fourteen years before. This 



& ©ream of Cmptre 



he secured in exchange for a hatchet, and all 
uncertainty disappeared. 

Then followed the settlement at Biloxi from 
which Iberville soon departed, leaving the 
new colony under the guardianship of his 
young brother Le Moyne de Bienville, and 
Sieur de Sauvole as titular governor. 

The Great Canadian's plans were those of 
La Salle vastly amplified by his far-seeing 
military brain. Not only would he unite the 
French posts along the Mississippi River, 
and where necessary establish new ones, so 
that a glittering armored line would hold back 
the advance of the English, but in addition 
he hoped by skilful management to form the 
Indians into an auxiliary corps to make guerilla 
war, harass the English front, and hold it at 
the Alleghanies. 

In January, 1700, Iberville's ships again 
entered the Gulf with provisions, money, and 
men to reinforce the establishment at Biloxi and 
erect the new post upon the lower Mississippi. 
It was none too soon. The irrepressible 
English, relying upon the indefinite westward 
sweep of King Charles's Carolina grant, had 
already entered the river to take possession. 
To be sure they had been induced to leave, 
by the diplomatic representations of Bienville, 
but Iberville fully realized the emergency and 
prepared at once to meet it. 

After some exploration of the neighboring 
creeks and bayous, he sent Bienville up to a 

113 



OTje iHasters of tfjc Wittier nes# 

tribe of Indians known as the Baygoulas. 
It was hoped, and justly, that these Indians 
who knew the low and marshy shores of the 
river intimately might point out a site for the 
fort that was free from inundation. Four 
days later Iberville followed his brother, and 
at a point about thirty-eight miles below the 
present city of New Orleans Fort La Boulaye 
was begun. 

It is here, on the 16th of February, 1700, 
that the mysterious weaving of the loom of 
Destiny again brought Tonty into the web. 
Sauvole, the governor, had written him in 
the summer of 1699 that Biloxi was occupied 
and had invited him to come down and visit 
the new settlement. Whether an internal 
conflict preceded his decision, or whether he 
felt the envy and jealousy natural under the 
circumstances, we have no means of knowing; 
we only know that in response to Sauvole's 
letter he generously descended the river to 
concert with Iberville extensive plans for 
French dominion in the valley. 

Now Iberville possessed to a high degree 
that magnetism, that subtle fire of personality, 
which inheres to leadership, and with the habit 
of subordination that Tonty had acquired 
with his military discipline he fell a willing 
victim to the congenial ambitions and mes- 
meric enthusiasm of the great Canadian. 
From now on we shall find him furthering the 
ambitious designs of the statesmanlike Iber- 

114 



a ©ream of €mpire 



ville with the same zeal and efficiency with 
which he served La Salle. 

Two days were spent beside the rising walls 
of the fort, during which they discussed the 
news from France and the needs of the colony. 
The political situation with reference to their 
Spanish and English rivals was carefully con- 
sidered, and Iberville unfolded his far-reaching 
plans to one whose co-operation would be 
highly important. Here also Tonty definitely 
disavowed the authorship of the so-called 
memoirs which someone in France had pub- 
lished under his name. These memoirs, 
abounding in exaggerations and untruths, had 
caused Iberville much delay and annoyance 
in his endeavor to identify the river. Besides 
the erection of the fort, Iberville planned at 
this time to explore Red River and the Missis- 
sippi as far as the Natchez village, and since 
this was the third time Tonty had visited the 
lower Mississippi, his presence and experience 
gave great satisfaction. 

In the camp itself, however, there was no 
comfort, for the cabins were not ready, the 
men lacked shelter, and the weather was 
bitterly cold. Large fires were maintained, 
but water froze a few feet from the blaze. 
Father Du Rhu says it was colder than he had 
known it for five years in France. Then the 
weather moderated, and rather unexpect- 
edly Iberville ordered the advance. Du Rhu, 
whose relation we quote, is a captious critic 

"5 



®be iWaSter* of tije Wlilbttnt&X 

and his own sufferings are his principal theme, 
yet the journey up the river was by no means 
pleasant. For instance, he says, on February 
21, "scenery all about the same — nothing but 
cane and large woods — Lord, how it rains, 
absolutely drowned yet we keep going — our 
clothes dry on us and we box the compass in 
the many turns on the river. We land for 
the night very tired and knee deep in mud. 
We try to dry blankets and clothes before the 
small fire but it rains again in the midst of all. 
We have our backs to the rain all night long 
and we still eat coarsely ground corn — always 
corn diluted with the muddy water of the 
river." 

The only occurrence that Du Rhu mentions 
with enthusiasm is the meeting with Le Sueur 
whom they overtook on a portage. He had 
come over with Iberville and was going to 
Minnesota on a geological expedition in the 
first decked boat that sailed the river. This 
meeting was a notable event, for Le Sueur 
gave his weary countrymen a feast that 
warmed their hearts into paeans of praise. 
Du Rhu was loath to leave these flesh pots, 
but the expedition had an imperious com- 
mander to whom food was fuel and nothing 
more. So after a brief delay they bade 
Le Sueur farewell and hastened on. The days 
were much alike. From daybreak till dark 
they toiled through the rain against the swift 
current and ate as best they could their coarse 

116 



& ©ream of €mptre 



corn. The scenery was not impressive except 
for its extent, but in those first voyages every- 
thing that happened about the river had its 
significance, and particularly was Du Rhu in- 
terested in the much-discussed "fork" of the 
river described by Hennepin, cursed by Iber- 
ville, and source of debate by historians ever 
since. Du Rhu's relation locates it about 
twelve miles below the village of the Bay- 
goulas, but he says nobody would have noticed 
it if it had not been pointed out, since there are 
a hundred places on the river that more nearly 
answer the description. He is quite disgusted 
with his spiritual brother, and the rivalry 
between his Jesuit order and the Recollects 
permits him to express himself about Hennepin 
right vigorously. 

The journey was a diplomatic and military 
expedition into a country potentially hostile, 
so every precaution was observed to keep the 
natives along the shores friendly and respect- 
ful. The first important tribe encountered 
was that of the Baygoulas, and the French 
halted a few miles below their landing-place 
to prepare themselves for the event. 

The party made its official entry upon the 
village with great stateliness and pomp. All 
the lessons learned from experience with the 
Canadian Indians were profitably practiced 
in the South. Three days were spent in 
the interchange of courtesies and ceremonials 
with the Baygoulas, during which Iberville 

117 



Wyt 4Ha*ter* of tfie Wtilbtxritte 

learned that Englishmen among the Chicka- 
saws were devising plots against the French 
missionaries and Tonty was detailed to com- 
mand a detachment and to take by force, if 
necessary, the Englishmen from that tribe. 

So the expedition divided. Iberville went 
on to the Natchez nation to arrange with 
them a treaty of friendship and to prepare 
with Bienville for an expedition up Red River, 
while Tonty returned to the new fort (La 
Boulaye) to secure the equipment for his enter- 
prise. In some way he there learned that the 
two Englishmen he was sent to capture were 
so well supported by the Chickasaw nation 
that the capture would be impracticable with- 
out bringing on a Chickasaw war, which was 
highly undesirable. 

Nevertheless Tonty finished his preparations 
and advanced up the river. At the village 
of the Oumas he met Iberville, who had been 
compelled by illness to turn over the command 
of the Red River expedition to Bienville while 
he hurried back to the fleet. It seemed best 
after some discussion to abandon the Chicka- 
saw enterprise, and Tonty continued up the 
river toward Starved Rock with his heavily 
laden canoes. 

Leaving the Mississippi, he branched off 
into the gentler waters of the Illinois. Spring 
had scarcely begun and the prairies were 
dotted with great herds of buffalo looming 
high and dark against the dead grass. On 
118 



& ©ream of €mptre 



either side the channel was bordered with 
swamps of tangled grass and red furze and 
extensive lowlands partly overflowed, from 
which protruded great stumps and confused 
piles of gray and fallen timber. Gradually 
the valley narrowed, the forested ramparts 
approached the river, and occasionally a cliff 
of bare sandstone shouldered its way to the 
water. On the highest and most conspicuous 
of these cliffs was Fort St. Louis. 

Promptly upon his arrival Tonty took steps 
to discover the relations of the neighboring 
tribes to the English, and learned that their 
faith and interest in the French was already 
wavering under hostile influences. Such was 
the report he despatched to Biloxi, where Iber- 
ville had arrived only to learn that his other 
rivals, the Spaniards, had in his absence paid 
a ceremonial visit to the colony. This visit, 
ostensibly friendly, was made in such force 
that the French felt assured that the Spanish 
had come with a sinister intent which only 
their preparedness and diplomacy had foiled. 

In May, 1700, Iberville took his ships to 
France, and shortly thereafter Tonty must 
have come to Biloxi, for Sauvole says that 
although food was scarce and the mutinous 
Canadians a source of tribulation, yet he 
intended to care for them and furnish them 
supplies as long as possible, as well as to Tonty 
and the missionaries. The food supply was a 
serious problem in the little colony, the more 

119 



£ije plaster* of tijc TOltlfcernestf 

so since the irresponsible voyageurs and colo- 
nists would not till the soil, but drifted hither 
and thither and spent their time either in 
hunting, searching for pearls, or flirting with 
the none too diffident Indian girls. There 
were few native products to be sent out, and 
but few ships came in, and those only when 
ordered. The "Enflamme" was one of these, 
and as soon as possible she was sent to San 
Domingo and France to fetch provisions. 
So strict were the orders in those early days 
of " protection," that when she sailed Governor 
Sau vole's principal satisfaction in her depar- 
ture arose from his success in preventing her 
from carrying off the beaver skins which the 
voyageurs had brought down the Mississippi. 
Callieres, the governor of Canada, had already 
made official protest against this diversion 
of trade from his own colony and the King 
was disposed to support him. Callieres was 
glad to have the colonies established on the 
Gulf, but he thought they should be made a 
part of Canada and contribute to her welfare 
and his own aggrandizement. Being unwill- 
ing to assume any share of the burden, and 
unreasonably jealous of the feeble little settle- 
ment in the South, he even refused to allow 
a post to be established on the Miami River 
which Tonty had wished to erect in conjunc- 
tion with La Forest and the Jesuits. 

Meanwhile Tonty, who had journeyed to 
Mackinac to arrange for this post if possible, 






& ©ream of Cmptre 



returned to Biloxi about the middle of Decem- 
ber, 1 701. He found Sauvole dead and Bien- 
ville in command of the colony. Shortly 
after his arrival, there came a swift shallop 
from Pensacola announcing Iberville's return 
with two frigates and a large supply of pro- 
visions. This news was most welcome to the 
hungry garrison, but Bienville was especially 
pleased to learn that two more of his brothers, 
Le Moyne de Chateauguay and Le Moyne de 
Serigny, had accompanied Iberville. 

The shallop also brought orders that the 
colony should move at once to a new site on 
the Mobile River. The difference between 
the French and English colonies is nowhere 
better illustrated than in the ease and celerity 
with which the French made a change of base. 
The colonists were not convened to debate the 
question and pass resolutions — not at all; the 
order was given, the day set, and at the ap- 
pointed time all were in motion. Only twenty 
men were left under Boisbriand to hold Biloxi 
while the rest under Bienville and Tonty set 
out for Mobile. On Dauphine Island, at the 
mouth of Mobile Bay, they found Serigny and 
Chateauguay busily constructing a royal maga- 
zine. The bay itself was a scene of activity. 
Canoes rushed here and there, traversiers 
moved back and forth between the ships and 
various parts of the bay, and from the fleet 
itself the supplies were rapidly unloaded. 
Bienville and Tonty went up the Mobile 



ftfje ifflatfter* of tije WMlbtvntxx 

River to select the new location and start the 
clearing. Iberville arrived at Dauphine Island 
from Pensacola a few days later and took his 
frigate over the bar into Mobile Bay. Thence 
by small boats he started for the river. 

On March 3 he reached the site of Mobile 
twenty-seven miles up Mobile River from the 
present city. The sound of axes and the 
crash of falling timber met him on every side. 
A boat was building for service on river and 
bay, and a fort with four bastions was in 
process of erection. 

The establishment was located on the river 
bank elevated twenty feet above the water and 
surrounded by the myriad stems of white and 
red oaks, laurels, sassafras, sycamore, and 
black walnut trees. However, it was upon 
the illimitable forests of Norway pine that the 
eyes of the sailor, Iberville, rested with the 
most delight, not on account of the elegance 
and stateliness of the growth, but because the 
tall, tapering, and almost branchless boles were 
so readily available for masts. Nor yet was 
he insensible to the charms of the place, for 
he reports that the shores and all the neigh- 
boring country for leagues beside the winding 
river were perfectly beautiful. With great 
satisfaction he laid out the lines of the city 
and made the allotments to the colonists. 

Beautiful as it was upon the river, the colony 
was not moved from Biloxi for this reason, nor 
on account of the excellent harbor, nor yet 



3 ©ream of €mptre 



because it was convenient for the Indian trade, 
although all these advantages had their weight, 
but the real reason was political. At Mobile 
the colony was well placed to be a thorn in the 
side of England and a constant menace to 
Spain. With this in view the friendship and 
trade of the neighboring Indians was most 
vital to success, so couriers were sent out to 
summon the Mobilians, Tohomes, and Ala- 
bamas to conference. The Choctaws and 
Chickasaws were more distant, but they were 
also far more numerous and more warlike. 
The Chickasaws furthermore were in close 
touch with the English and kindly disposed 
toward them, which made the mission to them 
one of difficulty and danger. This important 
embassy could be conducted only by Tonty. 
Iberville ordered that Tonty should be abun- 
dantly supplied with merchandise for presents, 
and he adds the characteristic note, "if the 
supplies cannot be furnished from the Royal 
Magazine let him get them from the Commis- 
sary and I will pay for them." 

There are three so-called "trading-paths" 
between the Tennessee River and the Gulf 
which formed, says Adair, the principal routes 
of communication. These followed, and in- 
deed grew out of, the north-and-south migra- 
tions of the buffalo herds as they changed their 
feeding-grounds. 

The most easterly left the Mobile River 
near its junction with the bay, and, running 

123 



{Efje iHa*ter* of tfje WlilbtxmM 

northwesterly through the present town of 
Citronelle, led to the large Choctaw village of 
Hiowanna near the present town of Shubuta 
on the Chickasaway River. Then, following 
a generally northern direction along the water- 
shed between the Chickasaway and Tombigbee 
Rivers, it passed through the principal Choc- 
taw towns and was lost at last in the midst 
of the Chickasaw country. 

To secure better hunting the villages were 
widely scattered. The headwaters of the Pearl 
and Chickasaway Rivers interpenetrate like 
the crowded tops of adjacent trees, and among 
these myriad creeks and streams the Choctaw 
villages were sprinkled in fruit-like profusion. 
Still farther north was the Chickasaw nation, 
less numerous but fiercer and less tractable 
than the Choctaws, and strongly under the 
English influence. Like the Choctaws also, 
their towns were located among the inter- 
penetrations of the eastward branch of the 
Yazoo River, arching to its source among the 
hills of northern Mississippi and the multiple 
creeks which gather to form the twin heads 
of the Tombigbee River. At this point the 
" trading-path " from the south ended, but 
hither also ran good trails from the north, 
from the Mississippi River, and also, unhap- 
pily for the French, from Carolina. 

The trail from Mobile was the basis of the 
old "Tennessee Road," and over this path 
traveled Tonty with his little party of eight 
124 




A section from a MS map entitled: "A Map of the Southern 
Indian District of North America. Compiled under the direction 
of John Stuart, Esq., His Majesty's Superintendant of Indian 
Affairs. By Joseph Purcell." [Undated ca. 1765.] (Edward E. 
Ayer collection of the Newberry Library.) The red line indicates 
Tonty's Expeditions. 



a ©ream of Cmptre 



Frenchmen and two Indian guides. On the 
south he left the vast low, sandy barrens, 
covered thickly with long, coarse grass, canes, 
reeds, and sedge, interspersed with pines, bays, 
and laurels, an evergreen thicket almost im- 
penetrable to sunlight, but on this account the 
chosen resort of wildcats, bears, wolves, and 
panthers, who found a secure retreat and an 
abundance of food in its deep and tangled 
fastnesses. Ponds surrounded by oak woods 
lay embosomed like jewels, and forests were 
set like emeralds amid a wealth of silver 
waters. 

Near the rivers, swamps were numerous, 
and giant cypress trees raised their lofty heads 
into the heavy vaporous atmosphere. As 
Tonty pressed on toward the nortl^ the sand 
became orange in color and was covered with 
fine grass and herbage, abundantly shaded. 
Live oak, hickory, poplar, magnolia, walnut 
trees, and ghostly sycamores appeared, the 
limbs of which were heavily festooned with 
Spanish moss and interlaced with huge vines. 
Wild turkeys fattened on the fruits and nuts 
that dropped to the ground, buzzards soared on 
ragged wing high overhead, while the tree tops 
resounded with the harsh cries of gaily colored 
paroquets and the liquid notes of mocking- 
birds. 

Through this great artery two hundred and 
fifty miles long pulsed the life of the tribes; 
here the solitary Indian lurked like a shadow, 

125 



m)t 4ffla*ter* of tfje TOUlbcrnestf 

or long files of painted warriors sped swiftly 
in search of their prey. 

But Tonty's mission was more prosaic. He 
bore not the war club and tomahawk as por- 
tents of strife, but the white swan's wings as 
emblems of peace. From village to village 
and from chieftain to chieftain, he carried the 
call to the Council. Among the Choctaws, 1 
as usual, he met with a cordial reception and 
quick response. Then leaving their friendly 
tepees he marched northward through the 
vast savannahs that form the southern portion 
of the Chickasaw domain. As he neared the 
end of his journey the spring storms began 
and the lowlands and swamps became almost 
impassable morasses. The travelers sank to 
their thighs in water and soft mud, while 
overhead the continuous rains kept them 
drenched to the skin. Upon arriving at the 
villages Tonty found that the physical diffi- 
culties of the journey were trivial in compari- 
son with the business diplomatic. To secure 
the interest and favor of the English-loving 
Chickasaws demanded all his tact and experi- 
ence. Stately conferences accompanied by 
presents were followed in dignified sequence 
by large ceremonious councils with much 
oratory. Gradually the suspicion and un- 
friendliness of the Indians diminished. The 

x Halbert, the historian, in a personal communica- 
tion, expressed the belief that Tonty did not visit the 
Choctaws until the homeward journey. 

126 



a ©ream of Cmptre 



gifts and skilful eloquence of the Frenchman 
prevailed. The Calumet was danced, the dele- 
gates appointed, and Tonty started homeward. 

On March 19 a runner came post haste to 
Iberville announcing that Tonty had left the 
Choctaw villages for Mobile on March 14, 
with a party of seven Chickasaw chiefs and 
four Choctaws. Five days later another 
message was brought in saying that Tonty 
was among the Tohomes and would enter 
Mobile on the 25th with his embassy. 

The little settlement was fittingly prepared 
for the reception and at eleven o'clock Tonty 
arrived with his delegation. Iberville re- 
ceived the savages with impressive dignity 
and with the elaborate ceremony so dear to 
barbaric hearts. Many presents were dis- 
tributed, and the following day was appointed 
for the council. 

Morning came and the chiefs were as- 
sembled. Bienville, the master of Indian 
dialects, interpreted sympathetically for his 
brother, just as their famous father had inter- 
preted for Frontenac in the ever-memorable 
council at Cataraqui. With a generous dis- 
play of additional presents before their eyes, 
Iberville painted for the Indians in blackest 
colors the insidious designs of the English. 
He portrayed them arming tribe against 
tribe until enfeebled by internecine strife the 
broken remnants would fall an easy prey to 
the avaricious English slave traders. 
127 



Cije iWatftertf of tfje OTilbcrne&s 

He enumerated their murdered brethren 
and those already enslaved, and showed how 
the steady invasion of the English would soon 
overwhelm their lands. Then he pronounced 
a glowing tribute on the French, their desire 
to live at peace with their Indian neighbors 
who would be benefited by the merchandise 
and trade, and emphasized the justice and 
protection that would come with the French 
dominion. 

Next, for fear the Indians might forget his 
arguments, either through stupidity, eager- 
ness for war, or the predilection of the Chicka- 
saws for the English, he added a few threats. 
"If the badly advised Chickasaws do not 
become enemies of the English and friends of 
the French as the Choctaws have done, then," 
he assured them, "he would arm the Choctaws, 
Tohomes, Mobilians, and Natchez against 
them and instead of restraining the Illinois 
Indians as hitherto, he would incite them to 
war upon the Chickasaws. But if the Chicka- 
saws and Choctaws continued at peace," he 
added, "he would establish a trading station 
on the upper waters of the Tombigbee be- 
tween the two nations to which each could 
resort with convenience and safety." Having 
finished his harangue, he distributed the 
presents and ostentatiously bought back from 
the Chickasaws a Choctaw slave who had 
been obtained from the English. Under the 
influence of this rare mixture of flattery, 

128 



& ©ream of €mptre 



argument, menace, and bribe — particularly 
the latter — the savages expressed themselves 
as quite convinced and desirous of peace. 
To Iberville, also, the conference gave great 
satisfaction, for he computed that by this 
treaty he had leagued to France about 2,000 
Chickasaws and 4,000 Choctaws. 

Even the commissary La Salle, notoriously 
hostile to Iberville and his " league of 
brothers," as he was pleased to call them, 
was moved to say in his report that the colony 
was under great obligations to MM. Iberville 
and Tonty who have conducted this most 
important negotiation. 

At the conclusion of the peace conference 
Tonty made one of his mysterious trips away 
from the colony. Only by incidental reference 
too brief to permit deductions, do we learn of 
his journeyings, and rarely do the records 
say whither. It might be in this instance that 
he took men and supplies up the Tombigbee 
River to plant the new station, since Iberville 
writes to the minister that he had established 
such a post 210 miles up the Tombigbee 
between the tribes of the Chickasaws and 
Choctaws and put Tonty in charge, or he may 
have returned with the Indians to reinforce 
their several reports; but at all events from 
some inscrutable expedition Penicaut relates 
that Tonty hastened back in the hope of seeing 
Iberville before his departure, but .the ship 
had sailed only a few days before. 

129 



£ije 0La*ttv* of tije aUtlberness; 

It was fortunate, indeed, for Tonty that he 
had made new friends, for at this time came 
the royal decree which required the discon- 
tinuance of Fort St. Louis at "Starved Rock," 
and henceforth Tonty made his home at 
Mobile. The environment was doubtless 
most congenial. In the old map of Fort 
Louis de la Mobile we find his plot of ground 
just west of the fort surrounded and by such 
names as Bienville, Boisbriand, Le Sueur, and 
the romantic St. Denis. In this little colony of 
one hundred and thirty people rested the entire 
defense and title of the French to the vast 
territory of Louisiana extending from the 
Gulf to the Great Lakes and from the vague 
English boundaries on the east to the Rocky 
Mountains. Here also was the governor, 
Le Moyne de Bienville, a youth of twenty- 
two. 

Little or no mention of Tonty appears in the 
scanty records of the next year, but we know 
that the settlement, so small and weak, was 
by no means spiritless. It was a busy center 
of intrigue, diplomacy, and war, and we can 
well believe that the wisdom and experience of 
Tonty was a comfort and support to the young 
governor into whose adroit, tactful, and 
masterful hands all threads ran. 

As King says, "Bienville was wrestling with 
the English and Indians and cajoling the 
Spaniards for the territory he occupied, as 
well as fighting the suspicion, distrust, and 

130 



21 ©ream of Cmptre 



calumny of those beneath him. Warding off 
famine and disease with one hand and guiding 
his leash of turbulent Canadians with the 
other, nevertheless he seems to have conducted 
his administration through the torpid encour- 
agement of his superior, and the active insults 
of his inferiors with the same stolidity of 
determination with which he conducted his 
pioneers through the freezing swamps of the 
Red River country." 

Everywhere were unrest, discord, and primal 
passions striving for expression, yet with bribe 
and caress, with menace and blow, Bienville 
controlled the enemy, both white and red, 
and led his colony forward. 

The war of the Spanish succession broke 
out, and into the villages and cornfields of the 
French and Spanish Indians came the enter- 
prising invaders from Carolina. At the same 
time the French and Spanish stations on the 
seaboard were kept in tense expectancy of 
the English fleet. 

The Spanish, badly provided with arms and 
food, usually shut themselves in their forts 
and sent frantic appeals for aid to Bienville, 
and he, realizing clearly the necessity of form- 
ing the Spaniards as well as the Indians into 
buffer nations to fend off the English, generally 
responded with supplies of food or munitions 
of war, or both. 

All the tribes east of the Mississippi were 
kept in a ferment by the English traders, so 

131 



£tje fflatttv* of tfjc JKBtlbernea* 

that one uprising after another took place, 
the French missionaries were killed, tribe 
warred against tribe, and village after village 
was destroyed. In consequence the infant 
colony, barely able to stand on its own feet, 
must stagger out to succor the Spanish, punish 
the revolting tribes, or avenge the murder of 
a countryman. 

The killing of a Frenchman was an affront 
that could not go unpunished, but when 
Father Davion came down the Mississippi 
and reported the murder of a missionary by 
the Coroas, the French establishment was so 
small and feeble that Bienville delegated the 
Arkansas Indians to avenge it. They under- 
took the commission joyfully and executed 
it mercilessly. It was the aim of the French 
to secure obedience and subjection rather 
than extermination, and for this reason the 
infliction of punishment was rarely left to the 
Indians alone, for they were too radical. 
The next conflict was with the Alabamas, or 
Upper Creeks, whose principal towns occupied 
the site of the present city of Montgomery 
(Alabama), and extended along the banks of 
the Tallapoosa for many miles to the east and 
north. 

At no time in the absence of the ships did 
the colony have an excess of provisions, and 
Bienville constantly tried to protect his 
granary, either by sending some of his men 
to take a much-coveted holiday among the 
132 



3 ©ream of €mptre 



Indians, or by buying food from the tribes 
whenever it was possible. Recognizing these 
conditions, the Alabamas were instigated by 
the English to come down the river with 
the story that the English had forsaken them 
and that they had corn to spare. Upon this 
information a detail of five men under Lieuten- 
ant Labrie was sent back with the party of 
Alabamas to purchase a supply. 

Three weeks later Labrie returned with a 
broken arm and reported that after passing 
in perfect security and good-will through the 
villages of the neighboring tribes, they came 
to a point about two days' march from the 
Alabama villages when their guides announced 
that they would go forward and prepare the 
chiefs to receive them suitably. * Upon this 
pretext they disappeared, but the same night 
they returned in force and murdered all but 
Labrie, who fortunately escaped by jumping 
into the river, although a well-aimed hatchet 
broke his arm. 

It was impossible to overlook such an 
offense, and Bienville notified the Mobilians 
and Tohomes to prepare for war. With Tonty 
and St. Denis as associates in command, the 
force, about two hundred strong, started up 
the river. It was planned to ascend the 
Mobile and Alabama Rivers, then land at some 
convenient point, and by marching rapidly 
across the country fall upon and surprise the 
Alabamas. 

133 



W&t JWatfter* of tijc WHMxnt&x 

The Mobilians were the main reliance of 
the French as counselors, guides, and burden- 
bearers, but it was soon discovered that they 
secretly sympathized with the Alabamas and 
that their principal business was to cause de- 
lay. After advancing for eighteen days the 
French leaders realized that most of the Indian 
contingent had deserted; that the guides had 
caused much useless labor, and probably had 
warned the Alabamas, so the expedition was 
abandoned and the troop returned home, as 
Penicaut remarks, in four days. 

The expedition was abandoned, but by no 
means the vengeance. Some days later Bien- 
ville gathered a fleet of ten canoes and with 
Tonty and St. Denis left secretly with a force 
entirely French. In twelve days they reached 
the spot where the four Frenchmen had been 
killed. Here they discovered the camp-fires 
of the Alabamas and a number of loaded 
canoes drawn up on the shore. It was a large 
hunting party. Bienville was for attacking 
at once, but Tonty and St. Denis voted for 
delay and a night attack. Scouts were sent 
out to locate the camp, and the French 
dropped back a couple of miles to wait for 
darkness. At the proper time they pushed 
cautiously up the stream, landed, and picked 
their way through the dense underbrush 
toward the enemy. 

The Alabamas were encamped on a bluff 
difficult of access, to which the only approach 

134 



9 ©ream otCmjnre 



was through a thicket of brambles and vines. 
When the fires had burned down to a dim red 
glow Bienville thought the Indians were asleep 
and ordered the advance. As they went for- 
ward in single file, a Canadian stepped on a 
cane which broke with a loud snap, and 
instantly a cry of alarm went up from the 
lodges, while every Frenchman stood still 
in his tracks. 

There being no repetition of the noise the 
Indians quickly settled down and after some 
delay the French again advanced. As they 
drew near their footfalls were heard by the 
wary savages; the war cry arose from all 
sides; a gun was fired and a Frenchman fell. 
The Indian women and children fled deep into 
the forest, protected by the warriors who re- 
treated slowly after. All but four escaped, 
because the darkness was so dense that the 
French could not see where to aim. Bienville 
and his men remained in the camp all night, 
but the Indians did not return. Finding no 
trace of the enemy at daybreak they burned 
the cabins and conveyed the captured canoes 
to Mobile laden with the corn and hunting 
booty of the Indians. 

It was thought that still further punishment 
was necessary, so a price was fixed on the 
scalps of the Alabamas and Boisbriand and 
forty men marched against them. 

Another expedition was despatched against 
the Chetimachas who murdered Father St. 

135 



W&t iWatfter* of tfje WHMtntX* 

Cosme, and yet another into the Alabama 
country. 

Thus the months passed in warfare and 
diplomacy, and it is certain that Tonty bore 
his full share in all the concerns of the colony. 
The little establishment was holding on and 
gradually elbowing a place for itself when in 
August, 1703, the "Loire" arrived from France 
with seventeen passengers and six thousand 
livres of money as well as much needed sup- 
plies and provisions. The reinforcement was 
timely and greatly encouraged the colonists. 

Iberville meantime had been named gov- 
ernor and commander-in-chief of all the French 
possessions on the Gulf and along the Missis- 
sippi, but ill health detained him in France. 
Nevertheless in August, 1704, he sent out the 
"Pelican" loaded with live stock, food, 
merchandise, and everything that Iberville 
thought could be useful to the new settlement. 
With her also came sixty-five soldiers, part 
of Chateauguay's company, De la Vente, the 
missionary, fated to be another thorn in the 
side of Bienville, and twenty-three girls of 
good family, by means of whom it was hoped 
the irresponsible, roving coureurs de bois might 
be domesticated and anchored to the colony. 

It seemed at last as if the colony must thrive 
and prosperity would crown the lean years of 
adversity, but while giving with a liberal 
hand Fate smote with the other. The 
"Pelican" had touched at San Domingo 
136 



& Bream of Cmpire 



and brought with her the yellow fever. It 
was September, the pestilential month in the 
South, and the epidemic slew the inhabitants 
with indiscriminate zeal. Two-thirds of the 
colonists went down. The "Pelican" lost 
half of her crew. Thirty of the newly arrived 
soldiers died together with Douge, the Jesuit, 
and Le Vasseur. Laboring with the sick and 
assisting the well was Tonty until at last he, 
too, succumbed to the pest, and the great 
valley which had been his particular care and 
home for so many years knew him no more — 
even in death. Somewhere on the bank of 
the muddy Mobile, not far from the Gulf 
of Mexico, he lies at rest in an unknown 
grave. 

In behalf of the poor, struggling *colony, he 
laid down the life which for twenty-five years 
he had dedicated to a dream of empire. In 
later times, indeed, the Mississippi Valley was 
destined to fulfil his ambitious vision, but in a 
manner strangely different from his patriotic 
ideal. 

The character of Tonty has called forth the 
warmest admiration from all students of his 
life and period. His steadfast loyalty was 
primarily the expression of his rare unselfish- 
ness, but also it was evidence of a lofty spirit 
which sacrificed personal ambition to the 
attainment of noble ends. If he lacked the 
dominating personality of La Salle and the 
imperial imagination of Iberville, he was none 

137 



GTfje jfflatfter* of tfje WlilbtvmXX 

the less a strong and influential chieftain. . If 
he lacked the impulsive emotionalism that 
captivates the souls of men and leads them to 
victory or perdition with an equal enthusiasm, 
he was nevertheless a practical far-seeing 
man of affairs, whose actions were always 
controlled by the head. 

His were not the quick decisions born of 
intuition, but rather the discriminating judg- 
ments of an unperturbed mentality. His 
laconic statement about the "Griffon" that 
"the vessel was completed during the spring 
of 1679" reminds us of later captains whose 
simple words, "We have met the enemy and 
they are ours"; "When you are ready, 
Gridley, you may fire," have endeared them 
to us far beyond their victories. 

In courage, intrepidity, and innate diplo- 
macy he was unexcelled, while his noble endur- 
ance of neglect, of injustice and the buffetings 
of fate, together with his early death give to 
his life a pathos that was lacking in many 
heroes. 

In him also may be detected a love of wan- 
dering, an unflagging energy and a zeal for 
chivalrous emprise — those elemental traits 
that seek expression in elemental environment 
and elemental contests. 

Not for him the blood made thick and sickly 
by the fetid vapors of the money changers, 
but rather the joy of the wide spaces and the 
stirring conflict with the wilderness. These, 

138 



3 ©ream of Cmptre 



the true inheritance of knight-errantry, purge 
the spirit and make it strong and clean and 
active — a discipline of the soul. 

This it was which drove him over huddled 
seas, up the heights of adventurous cir- 
cumstance, and into unknown lands. Never 
more did he return to France, but from the 
forest-crowned cliffs of the Illinois to the 
steaming swamps of the South he wandered 
uneasily to and fro. Watching, waiting, 
longing, and striving, he followed the call of 
the river; over his great soul, like a mantle, 
the Father of Waters had thrown an imperious 
spell; under this spell he lived and under its 
fateful charm he died — eminently unfortunate, 
yes, but how eminently human! 



139 



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144 



